


Not Yourself

by Bitter_Sweet



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst, Confessions, Domestic, Feelings, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Forgetting, Friends to Lovers, Horror, Kissing, Living Together, Lots of kissing, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Memories, Memory Loss, Mystery, NCT are here too, Pining, Possession, Slow Burn, Supernatural Elements, i don't know which, kind of, minsung if you squint, not really at least, side chenji, side chensung, woochan if you squint, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-06-27 05:45:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19784458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitter_Sweet/pseuds/Bitter_Sweet
Summary: "After that I . . .” Felix paused and Changbin looked at him expectantly.“And then . . .?”“I . . . I don’t remember.”Changbin turned his full body so that he was facing Felix. “You don’t remember?” he asked, concerned.Felix nodded, frustrated. “I vividly remember planting flowers and then, just . . . nothing.”“Lix, that’s really weird.”orFelix and Changbin move into a new house in the middle of nowhere and Felix starts to forget things. It doesn't take him long to find out he isn't the only one.





	Not Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! ^^  
> This is my first work for this fandom and it took me quite a long time. I hope you enjoy!

********

It was the dead of night and all of the boys were terrified of it happening again. They had finally plucked up enough courage to venture up the hill behind the house. It was the source. It had taken them far too long to figure out that it was something there that was making this all happen. 

The seven boys all stood at the base of a large, gnarled tree, feeling like it was staring back at them. They all stood close, too afraid to be alone, two of them clinging to each other closely. 

“Do you think it’s finally over?” The shortest inquired from the arms of the tallest. He was shaking. They all were. 

“I hope so,” one of the other boys replied shakily. 

“I don’t feel any different,” another chimed worriedly. 

“Do you feel like yourself?” The boy nodded. “Then all we can do now is hope.”

They were terrified to turn their backs on the tree, it felt like eyes on their backs, but they didn’t want to stay here any longer. In fact, they were going far, far away and never coming back. 

********

“This house is amazing! I can’t believe it was so cheap!” Felix exclaimed. 

“Not to mention giant,” Changbin added, setting down the last of their boxes just inside the door. “We could have probably fit all of our friends in here rather than just the two of us.”

“Are you trying to say you don’t want to spend time with just me?” Felix teased. 

“Oh, shut up you.” Changbin pinched his friend’s cheek which earned an “ow” from the younger. “You know what I mean. Seriously, what are we going to do with all of this room to ourselves?”

“Throw a party,” Felix responded. 

“I really hope you are joking.”

“Only kind of. This just means we need to invite our friends over all the time now,” Felix sang, picking up one of his boxes. “I want to pick my room first!”

With that, he took off into their new house, leaving Changbin behind. He laughed pushing open the door to the room he knew he wanted. They had come to view the house before buying it, of course, but now that they were actually moving in, it was finally hitting Felix just how big it was. 

The modern home was at the end of a road with only a few other houses. Their closest neighbors were a couple of students who seemed friendly enough. The entire house was furnished and Felix still found it hard to believe, especially considering the unreasonably low price. They hadn't been told there were any murders in the place so Felix was holding out a hope that it was just luck that got them this place and not the fact that this house was haunted. That would be a real bummer. Changbin may like horror movies, but Felix was pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate living in one. 

Felix didn’t see Changbin again until he had just finished shoving the last of his clothes into his closet. He knocked on his open doorway to get Felix’s attention. The younger turned to see him, lighting up with a smile. 

“Did you finish putting your things away already?” Felix asked, going over to his friend. 

“I did. Now we just have the rest of the house.”

Felix groaned. “Do we really have to?”

Changbin seemed to weigh his options before responding. “Well, we could always procrastinate and go to see the neighbors first instead.”

Felix pretended to think about it for a moment. “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go and greet our new neighbors.”

Deciding procrastination was a good idea, the two left their remaining boxes and walked over to their neighbor’s house. Felix knocked on the door happily once they had climbed up onto their front porch, hanging onto Changbin’s arm as he waited for an answer. 

The door swung open to reveal a smiling boy with bleach blonde hair. When he saw Felix and Changbin he gasped, smiling. He turned around and called into the house, “Jisung! It’s the new neighbors!” There was a shuffling from inside the house before another boy came to stand next to the blonde one. 

“Hello!” Felix greeted happily. Changbin waved along with him. “I’m Felix.” He turned to gesture to his friend. “And this is Changbin.”

“Chenle,” the blonde boy said with a smile. He moved a hand to the boy taller boy beside him. “Jisung.” He gave a small smile and wave. 

“We know a Jisung too,” Felix replied. “But it’s very nice to officially meet you.”

“I’m not going to lie, I was kind of afraid our neighbors were going to be some crabby old people who yelled at us for inviting our friends over,” Changbin admitted. 

Chenle laughed. It was loud and squeaky, like a dolphin. “We are far from that. We have our friends come over too. No big parties or anything, but there are a lot of them so it can get a little crazy.”

“How many?” Felix inquired curiously. “I thought us and our seven friends would be a lot.”

“Nineteen, not counting us,” Chenle responded. 

Felix felt his mouth fall open. “How do you even fit that many people in there!?”

Jisung laughed this time. “They don’t usually all come at the same time, but when they do I am always amazed at the creative ways they choose to sit with our furniture that is meant for two people.”

“If you have that many friends, I’m surprised none of them have moved into our house yet,” Changbin stated.

“Oh, some of them stayed there right after high school. Some of them lived here as well. That's how we got this house,” Chenle explained. “Why don’t they still live there?” Felix cautioned. _Please don’t say murder. Please don’t say murder_. 

The boy shrugged. “I think they just wanted to move on from here. Several of them moved closer to where they worked or moved in together. I’m not entirely sure though,” Chenle responded. 

“You forgot how they all left at once though. From both houses. They didn’t even have any plans to leave yet if I remember correctly,” Jisung corrected.

Chenle shrugged again. “Who knows.”

It wasn’t as reassuring as Felix would have hoped, but it was better than nothing. “I’m just glad you didn’t tell me something horrific happened there. I was startled by how cheap the house was for how fancy it is.”

“Well, it’s a little out of the way and most people prefer to live closer to where they work. That is probably what dropped the price so much,” Jisung reasoned. “I hope you both like driving.”

“If it means living in that house, driving couldn’t bother me less,” Changbin replied with a smile. 

“Well, we hope to see you more often. For now we really need to finish unpacking,” Felix explained. 

“Thanks for coming over to say hi,” Chenle sang happily. 

They waved their goodbyes and the two went back to their house to finish the monotonous job of unpacking. They supposed they were lucky the house at lease came furnished because Felix didn’t know if they would have the patience to ever set up their furniture. 

“Aaaaand done.” Felix sighed in relief as he finally slid the last drawer in the kitchen closed. 

“Finally,” Changbin laughed. They had delegated each other specific places in the house to set up and Changbin had finished a good deal before Felix. 

It was later in the day by this point and Felix could see the sun beginning to set from the giant window that constituted their back wall. Felix had to say that their living room was his favorite part of the house. The kitchen, dining room, and living room were all together in an open plan. Upon first walking in through the front door, the kitchen stood to the right, separated from the rest of the living room by a bar. The dining table was straight ahead, right in front of the back wall that was almost entirely glass. The sun set directly behind their house so Felix loved how it looked through the giant window. To the left, the television was mounted above a rather ornate fireplace, surrounded by their sofa and loveseat. The hallway leading to the other rooms in the house was just to the left of the kitchen.

Felix wrapped his arms around Changbin’s shoulders from behind. “Movie?”

The older laughed. “Sure.”

So, as the sun set steadily, the two settled close together on their sofa, legs outstretched on the ottoman to watch a horror movie Felix had let Changbin coax him into watching. 

Felix reached out to turn off his alarm only to find that he didn’t know where his phone was. He opened his eyes, flinching when he was met with the bright light of the morning sun. For a second, he forgot where he was. He looked around in a slight early morning panic before realizing that they had moved into a new house. He was also in the living room for some reason and he was too tired to remember why. 

The alarm sounded again and he grumbled. His phone didn’t sound close, but he had set the alarm loud enough that he could still hear it from wherever he had left it. He scrubbed at his eyes and tried to move only to find that something was restricting him. He looked down to see Changbin clinging to him, still sleeping soundly. Suddenly, everything came rushing back to him. They had been watching a movie and they both must have fallen asleep. Felix laughed lightly, brushing back his friend’s hair. He hummed in his sleep, shifting a little.

Felix carefully managed to slip his way out of the other’s grasp, not wanting to wake him. He knew that Changbin did not need to wake up as early as he did today. It was Friday and Changbin got to go into work late. Felix, on the other hand, still had to be there bright and early. They both worked at the same music company which accepted them both despite their rather young age. Both Felix and Changbin worked as songwriters, but Changbin also worked in music production with their friends Chan and Jisung. 

Felix shuffled sleepily into the kitchen, trying his best to locate his phone as his alarm continued to sound. Eventually he found it in one of the drawers of the kitchen. Honestly he didn’t know when he managed to put it there, but he figured it had to be at some point when he was putting things away. He sighed, relieved to finally turn off the annoying sound. He looked over to the couch before walking into Changbin’s room to grab his blanket. They had somehow managed to fall asleep without a blanket the previous night so Felix felt the need to at least give Changbin one now. He gently laid the blanket on top of him before shuffling off to get ready. Felix also decided to give him his plush even though he was already asleep.

The living room was fully illuminated by the sun when Felix made his way back out, now ready for work. He smiled at the sight of Changbin still sleeping peacefully on the sofa, even with how bright it now was. He glanced at the time on his phone before slipping it back into his pocket. Felix knew that his friend was going to need to wake up soon and he didn’t know where he had left his phone. Not wanting Changbin to go through what he had to, he decided he would wake him up. 

Felix slipped on his shoes before making his way back over to the sofa. Somehow Changbin ended up cuddling the plush close to him even in his sleep and Felix waned to coo at how cute it was. Instead he reached down to brush his fingers through his friend’s hair. He stirred slightly, but still didn’t wake up. Felix grabbed his shoulder and gave him a light shake. This time the older opened his eyes, if only slightly. 

Felix smiled. “It’s time to get up, Binnie.” Changbin sat up and stretched. “I’m leaving for work, I’ll see you there later.” The other yawned by way of response and that was good enough for Felix. 

With that, Felix headed off to work. It was a pretty good distance away from their new house and Felix was going to have to get used to the long drive, but it was worth it given just how much he loved the house. That and maybe he would be able to convince Changbin to drive most of the week when they went to work together. 

Work went surprisingly normal considering the big change of moving houses. Most of Felix’s coworkers asked about the new house, but it was Jisung and Chan that really interrogated him. 

“When can we come over?” Jisung asked. “I want to see your new house.”

“Soon,” Felix reassured. 

“What about Sunday? I can see if the others are free then,” Chan offered. 

“I’ll have to talk to Changbin, but I think that sounds great,” Felix replied with a smile. “Now let me get back to my writing.”

Felix didn’t see Changbin until lunch when he wandered into his studio and plopped himself onto the small sofa in the room. Felix had to share a room with Chan, but it worked well as they often worked on songs together. Changbin was so absorbed in his work that he didn’t even notice Felix enter. Chan and Felix had gone out for food, bringing some back for Jisung and Changbin. Felix was waiting to give Changbin his, but he looked so invested in his work that Felix couldn't help but to watch. 

The older was scribbling things in a notebook as he tested notes on his keyboard. Felix could not hear what the other was hearing in his headphones, but he knew it would turn out wonderfully anyways. Finally, he decided he should get his attention before the food got cold. 

“Binnie,” Felix prompted. “Don’t make me eat your food for you.” Changbin spun around in his chair, surprised, taking off his headphones. 

“Ah, sorry. I didn’t hear you come in,” he apologized. He got up from his desk, moving to sit next to Felix and taking his food from the younger’s hands. 

“Working on something special?” Felix questioned, smiling as his friend began devouring his food. “You seemed extra invested in it today.”

Changbin smiled. “I suppose so.”

“Oh,” Felix began, remembering something. “Do you think we could have everyone come over this weekend? Jisung and Chan won’t leave me alone about wanting to see our house.”

Changbin nodded, mouth too full of food to speak. 

And that’s how it was settled. Changbin worked on Saturdays so that left only Sunday for their friends to come over. Surprisingly, everyone was free. The studio was closed on Sundays so that freed them up. Jeongin didn’t have any classes on Sundays either so he was more than eager to come over. Hyunjin, Woojin, Minho, and Seungmin’s schedules varied, but they all also said that they would be able to make it. 

This gave Felix a day alone in the house before they had company so he spent his time making it look as nice as he could. He stored away all of their now unused boxes and made sure their kitchen was fully stocked for his surely ravenous friends. He knew he would need to do more shopping after this. And more cleaning. He loved his friends, but the house was not going to look this new once they had their way with it. 

“I can’t believe this place!” Hyunjin exclaimed. 

“It’s so big!” Jeongin added in awe. 

“Who did you have to kill to get this for such a cheap price?” Jisung interrogated. 

Felix laughed. “No one, luckily.”

“I think I have decided to just live here with you now,” Seungmin chimed, causing Changbin to laugh. 

“Yeah, no. None of you are staying here,” Changbin replied.

“Then you aren’t getting rid of us until late,” Woojin retorted and Felix sighed, knowing it was inevitable anyways. 

The day was just about as chaotic as Felix would have guessed. They spent their daylight playing games and cleaning out the kitchen of pretty much all of its food. By the time their house looked like a tornado had blown through, the group all settled in front of the tv to watch a movie that they all knew they wouldn’t be paying much attention to. 

“It’s great when we can all be together,” Chan sighed happily. “We’re like one big, happy family.”

Felix felt himself smile. “Yeah,” he breathed happily. “We are.”

Jeongin cooed and wrapped his arms around him, even though Jeongin was the youngest in the group.

“But now we are going to have to clean the house all over again,” Changbin complained, somewhat jokingly. 

“You know you love us,” Minho sang and no one refuted it. 

With everyone like together like this, gathered in their new, amazing house, Felix was happy. Fancy house, gorgeous view, great neighbors, and enough room for all of their friends. Felix was convinced that this was as close to perfection as anything could come. He smiled and leaned back to watch the movie with his friends all crushed onto their furniture. He hoped every moment in their new house would be this perfect. 

It was another week before strange things began to happen. Felix was sitting at the dining table, playing on his phone while Changbin started gathering things for supper. Felix didn’t notice anything different until he heard the front door open. He looked up to see Changbin walking out the door just before it closed behind him. Felix just sat there for a moment, confused. Did he want to go out for groceries? Did he decide he needed fresh air? Surely he would have said something before just walking out like that. Felix was in the same room, after all. 

Felix set his phone down on the table and stood up. He didn’t know why Changbin would just get up and walk away in the middle of preparing food like that so he decided it would be best to check on him. Felix expected to have to look around once opening the door, but he spotted Changbin the second he stepped outside. The older was simply a few steps outside of the door, staring ahead. 

“Binnie?” Felix called lightly. There was no response. “Changbin.” He reached out to lay a hand on his shoulder and Changbin jumped slightly, turning around to meet Felix’s eyes. 

“Oh,” he breathed. “You scared me.”

Felix flinched. “Sorry. It’s just, you walked out so suddenly. I wondered if something was wrong.”

Changbin looked at him in confusion for a moment before looking around. “I did?” Felix nodded, concern growing. “I must have just needed some fresh air. Sorry if I worried you. Let’s go back inside.” Felix nodded in agreement, but his eyebrows were still knit together in worry. 

They went back inside and the day resumed as normal. It was like nothing had happened at all. A few more days passed and Felix had completely forgotten about the incident. Nothing else had happened and Felix was beginning to believe that it really was nothing after all. That was, until Tuesday morning. 

Felix felt himself being shaken awake gently. He heard a whispered “Lix,” but he was not ready to be awake yet. He hummed a sound of annoyance and tried to curl himself further into the blankets only to realize there weren’t any. He opened his eyes, confused. He sat up and was met with Changbin’s concerned face. 

“Felix, how did you end up falling asleep here?” 

Felix, still lost as to what was going on, looked around only to realize that this was not, in fact, his room. It was Changbin’s. He wasn’t even really sleeping in the bed, so much as he was sleeping on it. Felix found that he had somehow managed to fall asleep at the foot of his friend’s bed and he had no idea how.

Felix met Changbin’s eyes again. “I don’t know.” He could see that Changbin had just crawled out of bed himself and was equally confused as to why the younger was in there. 

“What do you mean you don’t know? You know what, nevermind. Come on, you need to get up. We have work.”

Felix flung himself off of the bed at that, desperate to get ready. The rest of the day he found it difficult to focus. He couldn’t stop thinking about that morning. How had he managed to end up asleep at the foot of Changbin’s bed? No matter how hard Felix searched his memory, he came up with nothing. He really needed to get more sleep. 

Both Felix and Changbin were off on Thursday and their neighbors decided to come up and visit after their classes. They had stopped by other times just to say hello or to come and hang out and Felix had to say they were becoming pretty good friends. They were taking a break from playing a rather vicious round of Mario Kart when Felix decided to caution a question. 

“How long have you been living here?” Felix asked nonchalantly. 

Chenle and Jisung shared a look as if trying to get the answer from each other without talking. “Two months maybe? I’m not entirely sure, but certainly no longer than that. We are pretty new here too,” Jisung explained. 

Felix nodded politely at the answer before shooting another one their way. “Do you feel like you have been forgetting things more recently?” Changbin caught his gaze, catching on to what he was talking about. 

The two boys began to shake their heads before Jisung stopped and seemed to ponder for a moment. “Well, I have felt kind of tired recently, but I think that’s about it.” 

“I feel like I have been a little more forgetful these last few weeks, but nothing terrible,” Chenle added. “Why, is something wrong?”

Felix shared a look with Changbin before shaking his head promptly. “No, no. Everything is fine.”

“Don’t tell me you think this place is haunted,” Jisung teased. Actually, Felix hadn’t thought of that, but now that it was in his mind it was really bothering him. Seeing the look on his face, Jisung quickly amended what he had said. “I was just joking. There is nothing wrong with the house. It’s probably just the stress of moving. I forgot a lot of things when we first moved in.”

Felix sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you or make it seem like I didn’t like the house. I just think I’ve been a little out of it lately.”

Their neighbors were now looking at them with concern and Felix felt bad for dampening the mood. “Well, if you ever need us, please don’t be afraid to ask.”

They continued to come over and life went on normally again for a while. That was, until Felix realized he was forgetting again. He realized that it very well could just be his terrible memory, but the more he thought about it, the scarier it seemed. Felix never had problems with his memories before and now he suddenly couldn’t remember going to sleep some days, or what he did after supper. He was sure Changbin would have an answer if he asked, but Felix didn’t want him to worry. It was only small things that any person would forget and Felix knew he was just being paranoid. Or so he thought. 

It was Saturday and Felix was sitting on the sofa, reading one of his favorite webcomics when Changbin opened the door. The sun was already beginning to set and the older had just gotten home from work. 

“Hello,” Felix greeted happily. 

Changbin wandered over to the sofa and plopped himself down beside Felix. He looked tired and Felix wanted to tell him to go to bed, but he also wanted to see him since he hadn’t been able to all day. “What did you do today?”

Felix smiled. “I thought about going shopping, but I realized you would probably like to go too so I decided to plant some flowers out back instead. After that I . . .” Felix paused and Changbin looked at him expectantly. 

“And then . . .?”

“I . . . I don’t remember.”

Changbin turned his full body so that he was facing Felix. “You don’t remember?” he asked, concerned. 

Felix nodded, frustrated. “I vividly remember planting flowers and then, just . . . nothing.”

“Lix, that’s really weird.”

Felix searched Changbin’s eyes to see if he knew more than he was letting on. “It has been happening a lot recently, but never anything this big. I feel like something is wrong with me.”

Changbin reached out to set a hand on Felix’s shoulder. “There is nothing wrong with you, Felix. Actually . . .” he paused, shaking his head. “I feel like I have been a little more forgetful recently as well.”

Felix’s eyes widened. “So it’s not just me!”

Changbin retracted his hand and turned back around to lean on the sofa. “Maybe we just need more sleep. We have both been working a lot recently.”

Felix sighed and leaned his head on Changbin’s shoulder. “Yeah, you’re probably right. At least we have a free day tomorrow.”

This time, Felix remembered going to bed. He walked himself to his room and went to sleep. And he remembered it. Maybe they really were just working themselves too hard. 

“So, what did you two do over the weekend?” Chan asked Felix and Changbin casually. The three of them and Jisung were all gathered in Felix and Chan’s studio, chatting while they ate their lunch. 

“Oh we . . .” Changbin began the sentence happily, but trailed off. He looked to Felix for help.

Felix got as far as opening his mouth before realizing he didn't know either. What _had_ they done yesterday? Felix felt a terrible feeling settle in his stomach, something that was becoming all too familiar. “I don’t remember.” He hated those words. He hated just how much they came to him recently. He hated forgetting. 

Jisung and Chan shared a look. “Neither of you remember what you did yesterday?”

They both shook their heads. 

Felix felt fear growing inside of him. He knew that something wasn’t right. “Are you sure you two are getting enough sleep?” Jisung offered. “You have both seemed more forgetful lately. And that is a lot to forget.” There it was, the suggestion of sleep again. At this point, Felix no longer believed it was only sleep making them forget things. No, there was something else going on. There had to be. 

“Yeah, that’s probably it,” Felix conceded, only trying to make their friends feel better. Changbin caught his gaze and Felix shook his head. They would deal with this later. 

They made it through the rest of the week without any other large incidents aside from one of them occasionally spacing out or wandering somewhere in the house without remembering how they got there, but that much could at least pass for normal. It could also seem normal how Felix only tended to forget things when he was tired, but he had somehow managed to forget almost two entire days. Not to mention the fact that Changbin couldn’t remember the previous Sunday either. All of the incidents were adding up and Felix was beginning to think he was really going insane. 

Sunday had rolled around again and Chenle and Jisung had invited them over to hang out with their friends. At first, Felix questioned if there would even be enough room with the number of friends their neighbors said they had, but they assured them it would only be a handful of them. 

Their friends had been periodically visiting their house since they had moved in, with a special preference for Sundays, so when Felix and Changbin told them that they would be busy they all acted like it was the greatest betrayal of their lives. 

Felix and Changbin made it to their neighbors’ house to find that a “handful” meant ten of their nineteen friends. It was a little alarming seeing so many unfamiliar faces, but Chenle and Jisung’s presence made Felix feel more comfortable with the several other people crammed into their living room. Introductions were given and Felix found that they all got along quite well. It was going so well that the turn of the conversation surprised Felix. It might have seemed casual to Chenle, but to Felix it was more. 

“Most of these guys are the ones that used to live out here,” the blonde boy explained. 

Felix froze. This could be where he could get answers about the house, about what was happening. But what if it was just a totally normal house? He didn’t want these people to think he was being weird or paranoid. Though, they had already showed themselves to be a rather eccentric bunch. “Really?” Felix forced out the semblance of a normal response, wanting to ask so much more. 

Jising nodded in corroboration with his housemate’s words. “Ten, Doyoung, and Taeil used to live here. Johnny, Jaehyun, Yuta, and Taeyong used to live up in your house.”

“Donghyuk and I only ever come here to visit. We didn’t even know our friends used to live up here until they gave this place to Chenle and Jisung,” Mark added. 

Felix and Changbin both looked to the last person in the room for his explanation. “Oh, I didn’t start dating Yuta until after he had already moved away from here,” Sicheng explained when he realized he was the only one unaccounted for. 

Felix was now scanning the faces of everyone Jisung said used to live here. “Why did you all move?”

They all shared a look and Felix knew immediately that something was up. It was like they were waiting for the question. Johnny shrugged casually, but Felix didn’t believe his nonchalance for a second. “We realized that we were very far away from everything. Most of us moved closer to our jobs and I moved in with Ten.”

Felix nodded, angry that the explanation not only made sense, but also matched with what Chenle and Jisung had told him. He didn’t want something so simple. There had to be more. Felix decided to dig. “There was no other reason?” he questioned cryptically.

Taeyong laughed awkwardly. “No, not really. Why? Is something wrong?”

Oh no, they were hitting him with guilt. He loved the house, but there was just something . . . not right. “No, it’s nothing,” Felix rushed to reassure. He could feel Changbin watching him. “The house is amazing. I still can’t believe we live there.” He looked over to Changbin and gave him a warm smile that the other returned. It was something he felt like he needed to reassure Changbin a long time ago and he was only sorry it had to be in the form of an apology to someone else. He felt like he was really worrying him recently and he wished it wasn’t like this. “It’s just that I have been more forgetful recently.” With those last words, the room went dead silent. 

All of the boys seemed to try and sneak glances at each other in the silence and Felix caught every one of them. It was Chenle that broke the silence. “Now that you mention it, I have been forgetting more recently too. I can’t for the life of me remember what I did last Sunday.”

Felix felt his blood chill. He looked over to Changbin and saw a terrified gaze he was sure was mirrored on his own face. What surprised Felix was that he saw the same fearful pallor on the faces of all seven boys who had lived here before them. Mark, Donghyuk, and Sicheng shared a look of confusion. 

“Hm, I can’t either,” Jisung added, realization in his voice. “That’s weird.”

“Yeah,” Doyoung laughed. “Weird.”

Suddenly, everyone was moving again, but the entire mood was different. “I am sorry you have all been so forgetful recently,” Jaehyun apologized for no reason. 

“I am sorry,” Ten interrupted, grabbing Johnny’s hand and standing up. “But we really must be going.”

“We should probably go too,” Yuta agreed, standing up and resting his hand on Sicheng’s shoulder. 

Sicheng looked up to him, confused. “We should?” Yuta nodded to him promptly and the other boy stood along with him. 

Soon, everyone was standing up, one by one, claiming that, for whatever reason, they needed to go. This kept on until it was only Felix, Changbin, Jisung, Chenle, Donghyuk, and Mark left in the room. As Jaehyun and Taeil made their way out last, Felix could have sworn he heard them whisper something along the lines of “It can’t be . . . right?”

“Any idea what that was about?” Mark asked. Everyone shook their heads. “Because that was like, really suspicious.”

“You got that right,” Donghyuk agreed. 

Changbin wasn’t focused on that though. He had turned his attention to Chenle and Jisung. “Do you really not remember Sunday either?”

“Either?” Chele asked, incredulous. 

“Either,” Felix confirmed. 

Jisung wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. “This is really spooky.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t believe you about this whole forgetting thing the first time you mentioned it,” Chenle apologized. “There is definitely something going on.”

“Oh cool!” Mark exclaimed. “Like ghosts?”

It was Felix’s turn to shiver. “No, please don’t say that.”

“Mark,” Donghyuk scolded. “Don’t scare them. It’s obviously demons, not ghosts.”

Mark gasped and laughed. “Same thing!”

Felix squeaked in fear and moved to cling to Changbin’s arm. “Please no, I don’t even want to think about that.” Donghyuk laughed maniacally. 

The six of them stayed there for a while longer, talking and having fun. They had changed the topic if only to keep Donghyuk from giving Felix nightmares, but Felix still couldn’t stop thinking about it. How could they all forget the exact same day. If Felix thought hard enough he felt like he could remember waking up but that's about it. What could they have all been doing during that time? Was it anything different or did they just start forgetting their everyday activities? That last one somehow seemed scarier at the moment because Felix didn’t know how he would function at work if he kept forgetting his songs. 

Even after they went home, Felix couldn't stop thinking about how the others had reacted to the idea of them forgetting. They acted as if they had told them there had been a murder. Mark was right, it was really suspicious. Felix just didn’t know why.

Of all the times Felix thought he would get his answer it was not at the grocery store a couple days later. They had some of their friends come over again and their kitchen was now lacking in some food as a result so Felix had taken the liberty to do some shopping. He was minding his own business, trying to scan his own groceries because he wanted to go home when he noticed a familiar face next to him. 

“Ten?” he asked, turning to the man beside him, hoping he got the name right. Luckily, the other responded. 

“Oh, you are one of Chenle and Jisung’s neighbors, right? Felix?”

Felix nodded. “Yep.” And he decided he would risk a step further. “I’m surprised you remembered that after how fast you and the others rushed out on Sunday.”

Ten flinched. “Sorry about that. But . . . did you really mean what you said? About being forgetful.”

Felix nodded. “It’s not really like I just keep forgetting small things. Sure, sometimes I don’t remember going to bed or walking to certain places in the house, but I forgot an entire day and a half of another one. And, to make it even stranger, Changbin, Jisung, and Chenle can’t remember that Sunday either.”

Ten shook his head and frowned, looking rather frightened. “That can’t be right. We stopped it.”

Felix felt his blood run cold. “Stopped what?”

Ten sighed. “If you are telling the truth, I am so sorry. I took us a full year of living in those houses to figure out how to make it stop. And when we did, when we could finally leave, we did. But it was supposed to be gone.”

Felix’s brain was struggling to comprehend what he was hearing. “Woah, woah, what? I'm telling the truth, but I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Ten looked him in the eyes. “I suppose I owe you some sort of explanation, don’t I?” Felix nodded expectantly. The older sighed again. “To be honest, I’m still not sure what it is myself. I think the best way is for you to see it for yourself. Behind the house. Climb the hill and there will be a tree.”

“There is a forest behind the house, there are a lot of trees.”

Ten shook his head. “You’ll know the one.”

With that, he grabbed his bags and left. Felix was left to stare at the empty space where the man had been, heavily contemplating what he had just been told. It all seemed so cryptic, but it was the closest he had come to an answer thus far and he was not going to waste it. 

Felix finished paying for the groceries as if he was on autopilot and headed home, nothing but his mission on his mind. He barely had the mind to put the groceries away when he made it home before beelining for the backyard. He saw the flowers that he had planted lining the back of the house as he passed. He didn’t see Changbin when he was putting away the groceries and he could only assume his friend was cooped up in his room working on music. There was no stopping him when he got really into a song, else he normally would have helped Felix with the load. That also made it the perfect time for Felix to be sneaking out to figure out just what Ten was talking about. 

The forest behind their house looked gorgeous, just like everything here did. When Felix reached the treeline he immediately noticed the path leading into the forest. Felix entered tentatively and quickly saw that the path did, in fact, take him up a hill. He was glad that it was still early enough in the day for the sun to be up because this would have been terrifying in the dark. Felix still wasn’t entirely sure how he was supposed to recognize the tree that Ten was talking about, but he really hoped he would know it when he spotted it. 

Felix reached the top of the hill and, sure enough, a large, gnarled and yet gorgeous tree stood before him. All of the others trees seemed to have planted themselves further back as if trying to make room for this one. Unlike the other trees in the forest, this one was entirely devoid of leaves. It almost looked dead, but Felix could almost feel just how _alive_ it was. It was a very strange feeling. And yet, he still wasn’t sure what this had to do with him forgetting things. Ten had told him that he needed to see it for himself, but he still didn’t know what he was meant to see. 

He carefully made his way to the giant, looming tree, placing his hand gently on the trunk as if that would do anything. Well, actually, it did. Felix gasped as his vision suddenly went dark. He tried to stumble backwards only to find that he could no longer control his body even though he could still feel the cold air around him. Suddenly, the darkness faded and he could see himself. He was sleeping in his bed, his entire bedroom so dark that he almost could not see a thing. It was surreal seeing himself in third person like this and he had no idea what was going on or why it was happening. 

He watched as he suddenly got up out of bed and walked out the door. The view followed him and it was like watching a movie, but he was trapped, unable to look away. Was this supposed to be something that already happened? Because Felix didn’t remember ever waking up in the middle of the night like this. 

Felix felt his actual body gasp in realization when he watched himself slip into Changbin’s room. Was this how he ended up in there that day? The angles continues to switch skillfully and Felix really felt like he was watching some feature film. But this was something much much scarier because Felix didn’t remember a second of this. Felix watched himself perch at the foot of Changbin’s bed as his friend slept peacefully as if nothing was wrong. Felix watched as he just sat there, staring at the older as he slept. Felix shivered. It was terrifying. 

This went on for what felt like forever before he finally curled up on the bed and went to sleep. Felix was left feeling absolutely terrified. He didn’t remember any of that. Not to mention it would be really creepy even if he had. What on earth was going on? Felix thought that was the end, but he was oh so wrong. 

Time jumped around as Felix watched himself wander into rooms he didn’t remember entering, staring at nothing for minutes on end. However, it didn’t stop there. The memories started to get more recent, to the times when he realized he was forgetting more and more. It was another one that happened at night, but, this time, he didn’t go to sleep first. He had just sat down on his bed, something he actually remembered doing, when he abruptly stood up again. He walked out of his room and kept walking until he walked out of the house entirely. He didn’t have shoes on and he was in his pajamas, yet he still walked all the way around the house and into the woods. Felix shivered for his past self, imagining how cold it had to have been at night. He watched himself follow the same path that he just had, walking up to the tree and setting his hand on it, exactly like he was at the current moment.

This startled Felix enough that he finally ended up actually stumbling backwards, disconnecting himself from the tree. He was breathing heavily and when he looked around he realized that the sun was beginning to set. 

“What,” he murmured to himself, shaking with fear, “was that?”

He looked back up at the tree that still stood ominously before him. He had no idea why it was showing him these things or what was happening to him to begin with but Felix was well and truly terrified. In all of those moments he couldn’t remember, he wasn’t in control and he didn’t know what was. However, Felix also realized that he hadn’t made it to the weekend he had forgotten yet. The half of a day that managed to escape him and the Sunday that they all forgot. 

Felix took a deep breath, steeling himself, before placing his hand back on that stupid, evil tree. The visions took over again and he felt fear wash over him, but he couldn’t help wanting to _know_. 

He didn’t know what day it was now, but he was up in the middle of the night again. This time Changbin was with him. They were holding hands and walking outside of their house in the middle of the night. For some reason Changbin was wearing one of Felix’s shirts that he realized was missing a few weeks ago. At this point, Felix wondered if whatever was controlling them was just messing with them. They walked to their backyard and just . . . stood there, holding hands and staring up at the sky. Honestly, Felix was a little jealous of his past self; it had been a long time since he had taken the time to just stare up at the stars. He imagined how beautiful it would be. 

The vision faded from night to day and Felix saw himself in the backyard, down on his hands and knees planting flowers. He knew this day. It was the one he forgot an entire half of. What had he done the last half of the day? Felix watched eagerly to find out. 

He watched himself as he stood up and made his way into the house. Felix walked into Changbin’s room and began opening drawers. Felix wanted to call out for himself to stop, but he knew it was impossible. All of this had already happened. It seemed he was being extremely careful not to touch anything, or move it out of place. He was just . . . looking. Felix didn’t know what for and it was wildly unnerving watching himself go through his friend’s belongings. 

Eventually, he stopped whatever it was he was doing and left the room again. Next, he went to the kitchen and started repeating a similar process, opening drawers and cabinets. Felix didn’t know if he was looking for something or if he merely wanted to see just where everything was in the house. Either way, it was beyond creepy. Felix watched himself do something similar around pretty much the entire house before he settled on the sofa. From that point forward, Felix remembered what he had been doing. 

Felix knew what was next. That was Saturday so that meant the next vision had to be the Sunday that they all forgot. He braced himself for the worst as the vision shifted. Once again, Felix wasn’t alone. Except, this time, instead of it being just Changbin and himself, Chenle and Jisung were there too. They were all settled on the sofa of their living room.  
They all shared looks and seemed like they were having a conversation without ever actually talking. Some time went by with them all just sitting there, communicating in this weird way. Soon, they sort of branched off. Felix stayed with Changbin and Chenle with Jisung. Chenle had climbed into Jisung’s lap and was smiling happily. It was so strange how much like themselves they _almost_ seemed. Felix was curled into Changbin almost like they were when they would watch movies. It all felt so normal, so natural, that Felix had to remind himself that he didn’t remember a second of any of this. That and not one of them had spoken a single word this entire time. Felix still couldn’t help but to feel like they were communicating silently. 

This went on for some time and Felix noticed the sun beginning to set from their giant window. All at once, everyone in the room turned to look out the window. It was really ominous and Felix suddenly wished they would go back to just doing nothing. His wish was . . . almost granted. As the sky started to darken, the room darkening with it, the two pairs of boys turned back to each other. Felix’s vision panned over to Chenle and Jisung like some expert movie camerawork. 

The two boys were suddenly facing each other and were now nose to nose. The moment felt extremely private and Felix felt like he was intruding. There was also the fact that the pair had told him that they were not dating so the intimacy of the moment felt strange. Not but a second later, Chenle leaned in and connected their lips. It wasn’t soft or sweet or anything that the boys really were. Instead it was a lot of tongues and teeth as Chenle cupped the younger’s face in his hands. Felix wished that he could close his eyes or look away. Even though he knew they didn’t remember this any better than he did, it still felt incredibly wrong for him to be watching like this. 

Almost as if the vision could hear him, it suddenly moved, instead, over to him and Changbin. Felix was immediately startled by what he saw. He watched in horror as he climbed _on top of_ Changbin. He curved his back and placed his hands on Changbin’s shoulders, leaning down. Felix watched himself press soft kisses all over Changbin’s face. He kissed his the tip of his nose, his forehead, his cheeks. Changbin closed his eyes to let Felix plant kisses on his eyelids. It was something that probably should have been cute, but, in this case, it somehow felt so . . . sensual. 

Felix’s brain was malfunctioning as he watched himself move his kisses to Changbin’s jaw. His heart was beating out of his chest and he wanted to back away again, to stop this. Changbin was one of his best friends. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He didn’t even remember doing this. Everything about it was so . . . wrong. And yet, Felix couldn’t find it in himself to stop watching. 

Felix kissed the corner of Changbin’s mouth and moved back to rest his forehead against the other’s. The vision was close enough for Felix to see the freckles on his own face and somehow that only made it seem all the more intimate to him. Felix barely caught sight of Changbin’s arms snaking their way around his waist before the older tilted his head to connect their lips. Felix felt his stomach do a flip at the sight. It was surreal. 

He watched, unable to do anything as his hands slid from Changbin’s shoulders up his neck. It was the strangest sight, watching his lips move against Changbin’s, watching himself make out with his friend like this. Their lips parted for only a moment before reconnecting and Felix could _hear_ the sound it made. It was intoxicating. His hands made their way up to Changbin’s hair, pulling him closer. 

Suddenly, it was all too much. Felix took a deep breath and forced himself away from the tree once again. He held a hand to his heart and found that he was shaking violently. He looked around to see that it was now dark outside. An even deeper fear buried itself inside of him and he momentarily forgot what he had just seen. His shock was replaced by the fear of being in an unfamiliar forest at night, a freaking demon tree looming over his head. 

Felix regretted not bringing at least his phone with him, as he now had no light to guide him back home and he _really_ did not want to be stuck here. Luckily, the moon shone brightly above him and Felix was also able to make out the lights of the house through the trees. He stumbled back through the trees, desperate to get home, especially after what he just experienced. 

When he made it back to the front door of the house he rushed inside without even stopping to wonder how long he had been gone. That is, until he opened the door to see Changbin sitting on the couch looking worriedly at the door. When he saw Felix enter he stood up immediately. 

“Lix!” he exclaimed, voice dripping with concern. “Where were you?’

Feix felt terrible for making his friend worry, but suddenly he was immensely distracted. At the mere sight of Changbin the memories of, well, his memories came rushing back. His brain struggled to think of a plausible explanation, because he didn’t think he was quite ready to tell Changbin that something was controlling them and that they had made out during said time. “I was . . . out back.”

“Where?” Changbin insisted, making his way over to Felix. Felix wished he didn’t because it was suddenly ten times harder to focus. He felt his eyes continuously drift to Changbin’s lips, no matter how many times he tried to look away from them. “Did you go all the way out into the forest? I was really worried!”

Felix didn’t think his mind was working properly because all that he managed to get out was, “Your voice.”

Changbin looked at him, utterly confused. “What?”

“Your voice sounds nice.” Felix couldn’t control what was coming out of his mouth anymore. He spent so long in those memories that he almost forgot what Changbin’s voice actually sounded like. And after seeing the entire day where none of them spoke a word, it was really nice to hear him speak.

Changbin knit his eyebrows together. “I think we need to get you to bed.”

Felix wasn’t about to argue with that. He let Changbin walk him back to his room. “What time is it?” he asked on the way. 

“Lix, it’s two a.m.” Changbin responded, worry dripping from his voice. Felix felt his eyes widen. “I think you should stay home tomorrow. I don’t know what has been going on, but I am really worried about you.”

“I’m sorry,” Felix whispered. He felt terrible that he was making Changbin worry like this. He didn’t know when he went outside that he would stand at a tree for several hours.  
“I’ll stay here with you tomorrow. I . . . don’t think I’ve been all there recently either.” Changbin sounded so resigned that Felix almost wanted to tell him just to stay in his room and sleep there, but he thought better of it. 

“Can we talk about things in the morning?” Felix asked softly. “What has been going on. I think I finally figured it out.”

Changbin heaved a sigh. “Yeah. That sounds nice. Now get some sleep.”

With that he left the room and Felix was left wondering what had been happening to him as well. Felix had only really been able to see the memories he was missing, but he wondered if Changbin had been wandering off alone as often as Felix had. Felix slipped under the covers after removing his shoes, not bothering to change out of his clothes.  
Suddenly, his thoughts were back on a certain memory. He didn't want to think about it, he felt guilty for thinking about it, but no matter how much he tried to avoid it, his thoughts always circled back to the image of his lips on Changbin’s. He groaned and covered his face, embarrassed even though he is the only one who knows about it now. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t them. But Felix would be lying if he said he didn’t want it to be. 

Felix has had a crush on Changbin since high school. He could say that it was from the first time that he met him, but he knew it was really a little later than that. Felix had been enraptured with Changbin from the moment they met when the other tried to make him feel more welcome when he was new at the school. That was probably when the crush started, but it was when Changbin kissed him that he really fell hard. It was only a kiss on the cheek and it was only for a dare, but Felix remembered it vividly nonetheless. Felix decided to drift into sleep with this on his mind and all he could do was hope that he didn’t wander anywhere in his sleep again. 

Felix woke up the next day to find that it was already well into the day. The sun streamed in through his windows and all that he could think upon just waking was that he really needed curtains. He stretched to wake himself up and patted his bedside table for his phone to check the time only to find that it wasn’t there. He panicked for a moment before remembering what had happened the previous night. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone that he had been too tired to remove before falling asleep. 

The brightness of the screen nearly blinded him, but he was able to make out the time. Yikes. It was already almost noon. He must have really been tired. He hopped out of bed and changed into some new clothes before making his way into the living room. Changbin was in the kitchen, fishing around for leftovers in the fridge when Felix entered. 

“Good morning,” Felix greeted sleepily. 

Changbin turned to meet him with a smile. “It’s about time.”

“Did I make you wait?’ Felix teased. 

“Ha ha. No, I was . . .” He trailed off and Felix felt a familiar feeling a dread sink into his stomach. 

“You don’t remember, do you?” Changbin paused for a moment, clearly trying his best to recall how he had spent his morning before giving Felix a resigned shake of his head. “Okay, I think we really need to talk about this.”

They settled on the sofa after Felix had grabbed a quick snack to constitute the breakfast he slept through. “At first I thought you were just being paranoid,” Changbin explained. “But I have started to forget bigger and bigger things and I am beginning to get concerned.”

Felix gasped in mock betrayal. “You didn’t trust me?” Changbin swatted at his arm and Felix giggled before continuing, more serious. “Really though, I think I found the reason behind the memory loss.”

“Well,” Changbin prompted, waiting. “Are you going to share it?”

Felix fought back a smile, trying to stay serious. “Something is controlling us.”

Changbin fixed Felix with a dead serious stare. “Lix, don’t mess with me.”

Felix shook his head and scooted closer to his friend. “No, I’m being serious. Do you remember the people that lived here before us and how awkward they seemed when we mentioned forgetting things?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we are being possessed.” Felix shivered at the word “possessed.”

“No, I met one of them later and he . . . cleared some things up. Just think about it, Binnie. It’s not that we are just being more forgetful. We forgot an entire day! And it wasn’t just the two of us, Chenle and Jisung forgot as well. That’s not normal.”

“Are you trying to tell me we are all being possessed by a demon?” Felix shivered at his friend’s word choice once again. 

“I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it wants. But we have not been ourselves lately.” That was as far as Felix was willing to go with his explanation. He wanted so badly to tell Changbin what he had seen, to show him the tree. That would prove his point so much better than he was right now, but that would mean that Changbin would see what he had forgotten. And that meant he would see what happened on the Sunday they all forgot. And Felix didn’t want him to. He was scared of what would change if he did. Already it had stirred feelings in Felix that he thought he had put to sleep. 

Changbin took a deep breath. “Assuming all of this is true, what do we do about it?”

Felix went silent, not knowing how to respond. This was both because he was shocked his friend actually chose to believe him with so little reason to and because he actually had no idea how to answer that question. “I . . . don’t know.”

“Well then, what now?” Changbin complained. “You tell me that we are being possessed and there is nothing we can do about it. Maybe we should just find a new house.”

Felix had been thinking about that too, but given what Ten had said about the tree was true, it was also likely that what he said about not being able to leave until it was dealt with was also true. Felix shook his head. “No, that won’t work.”

“Why?”

“Ten said that they couldn’t leave until they stopped it.”

“So we are just stuck with this bodysnatcher until we figure out how to appease it?”

“That seems to be the case, yes.”

Changbin groaned and slumped back into the couch. “This sucks.”

Felix laughed. “Yeah,” he agreed. 

“Well, is there anything we already know that could give us a clue as to what it wants?”

Felix thought about it really hard, but all he could seem to think of was just how eager whatever was controlling him had seemed to explore their house. It’s like it was familiarizing itself with it. 

“I don’t think so. Not yet at least.” Felix frowned and leaned into Changbin. “It looks like we just have to wait.”

Changbin sighed and threw his arm over Felix’s shoulders. “Well, we still have the entire day off. Movie?”

“Sure, but it had better not be a horror movie. We are already living in one.”

“I know and it’s such a cliche. Being haunted after moving into a new house? That’s just boring at this point.” Felix smiled at how Changbin was trying to be playful. 

“I don’t think I would call this haunting. It’s more like it’s just trying to mess with us.”

“Right you are. We don’t even remember anything it’s doing, so it’s not even scary. Right?” Changbin shook Felix’s shoulders lightly and looked over to him with a lighthearted smile. 

Felix knew that his friend was only trying to cheer him up, he was the reason they had taken the day off after all, and he smiled right back at him, burying himself deeper in the other’s embrace. He still wasn’t ready to tell Changbin that he had been able to see what memories he had been missing and they were really kind of spooky, but he felt so safe here, tucked into Changbin’s embrace, that he didn’t much mind it. At least, not for now. 

Felix spent the entirety of the day lounging around the house with Changbin and he remembered every second of it. There was something so special about being present for every moment like this, especially where there was something that seemed to like controlling them. Somehow, miraculously, this made Felix forget just what a predicament they were in. Instead, he allowed himself to spend time with his best friend.

I wasn’t until it was dark outside and the two were curled up with each other on the couch that the image of Changbin’s lips on his own once again invaded Felix’s mind. He could immediately feel his face heat up at the memory. They were sitting on the sofa in about the same place they had been in the memory. The television was still on and Changbin was still paying attention whatever was happening in the show they were watching, but Felix moved his gaze to look at his friend. 

The older was smiling lightly, eyes moving to follow the character on the screed. Felix traced the lines of his face with his eyes, landing on his lips. The same ones that had been on his when neither of them were in control. Felix also couldn’t help remembering the way he had softly presses kisses all over Changbin’s face. There was just so much affection in everything that he had seen. Felix would be lying if he said he didn’t want to do that when he was himself. 

Felix almost literally jumped in surprise when Changbin’s gaze flicked from the tv over to him. He quickly averted his eyes, embarrassed to be caught staring. He felt Changbin pull him closer and he sighed. He wished every day was this peaceful. 

They went to bed late, knowing that they had tomorrow off as well. Felix fell asleep in such peace and comfort that he completely forgot that weird things liked to happen at night. 

Felix gasped awake to find himself not soundly tucked into his bed, but standing in the middle of the woods in the dead of night. He felt the fear and panic wash through his system immediately. He looked around, hoping to see something, anything that looked familiar, but all he saw were the trees surrounding him. Felix shivered both because he was afraid and because he was freezing. He was still in his pajamas and wasn’t wearing any shoes. Honestly, he didn’t think he could feel his feet anymore. 

Felix wrapped his arms around himself, trying to keep warm. He tried to stay calm, but he was panicking. Nothing this drastic had ever happened before. Usually he just seemed to stay in his house. Or, at least, that’s where he would become himself again. This had never happened before and, frankly, it was terrifying. Felix felt his breathing quicken as he started to wander in any direction he could. He didn’t know where he was going, but he didn’t want to be here. 

Felix could feel himself beginning to choke up, body shaking violently as he succumbed to the fear and panic. He didn’t know what to do and he was terrified. It was dark and he was scared of something coming out from anywhere he couldn’t see and attacking him. He just wanted to go home. Felix knew that it was silly and almost certainly hopeless, but he couldn’t help himself from calling out anyways. 

“Changbin?” His teeth were chattering. “Binnie? Anyone? Please . . .” He was met with only silence. He could feel the tears streaming down his face now. He had picked a direction and committed to it, stumbling hopelessly ahead. 

He felt like he had been walking for forever by the time he actually saw a light. It was faint and distant, but it was the only hope he had seen so far. Felix picked up his pace, rushing for the light. However, since he could hardly see a thing in the darkness, he tripped over something on the forest floor and stumbled forwards. 

He stretched his hands out to brace himself for the fall, scraping them on the rough ground. He winced in pain, but picked himself back up. It took him a moment to readjust to his surrounds and find the light again, but he made his way towards it with fervor once again when he did. Eventually, Felix broke free of the trees to find that the light he had been following was a streetlamp. Specifically, it was the streetlamp that marked the entrance to their driveway. Felix breathed a sigh of relief. The road was long, more of a street than a driveway really, but Felix was just happy to finally know where he was. 

Felix was certain he was unable to feel his feet when he made his way up their road, walking on the gravel without feeling a thing. Felix was completely worn out by the time he actually saw his house and he could feel himself start crying again, this time in relief. He had almost managed to convince himself he would be lost out in the woods forever. 

He had almost made it to the front door when it suddenly swung open. Felix was too exhausted to stumble backwards in fear. Changbin ran out of their house wearing boots and a jacket he had haphazardly thrown on over his pajamas.

“Felix!” he screeched just before throwing his arms around the younger. Felix mustered the energy to reach up and hug him back. Changbin was shaking and it took Felix a second to realize that he was crying. Felix’s fingers curled into the fabric of Changbin’s jacket as he pulled him closer. 

“Binnie?” Felix whispered. It was almost as if he was making sure he was real. Felix wasn’t sure that anything was anymore. 

“I was so scared,” Changbin softly whispered back. “I woke up sitting on my bed. Just . . . sitting there. It took me a second to realize it was a sound that had woken me up; the front door closing. I went to go and see what it was only to see you wandering into the forest through the window in the living room.” Felix shivered, imagining how terrifying that would be. “I knew . . . I knew that something wasn’t right, so I went after you. I ran into the woods and called for you for what felt like forever, but you were gone. I was so scared I lost you.”

“I woke up in the middle of the woods,” Felix explained shakily. “I didn’t know where I was. It was so scared. So cold.”

Changbin pulled back to look Felix over. “You look terrible! Are you okay?” Felix wanted to smile and laugh it off, but he felt himself getting choked up, remembering just how scared he was. He frowned, trying not to cry, and shook his head. Changbin knit his eyebrows together, reaching out to touch Felix’s face, gentle. Felix felt his heart do a flip. “You have to be freezing. Here.” Changbin took off his jacket and slung it over Felix’s shoulders. “Let’s get back inside.”

He wrapped his arm around Felix and led him inside carefully. Now that all of the adrenaline had drained out of Felix’s body, he could suddenly feel the pain in his feet again. They were still freezing, but he could now feel just how much he had shredded them up running through the woods. 

They made their way to Felix’s room, both settling down onto his bed. Felix got a sense of deja vu from when he had gone out to the tree and come back in the middle of the night. However, this situation was much more dire, much more terrifying. When Felix finally sat down, he drew his feet up to assess the damage. The warmth of the house was starting to make them feel like they were burning and they were beyond sore. He flinched when he saw that they were bleeding. 

“Lix, what did you do?” Changbin exclaimed, alarmed. 

“I . . . needed to get home. Or, anywhere really. I was so scared. It was dark and I was alone in the woods, no idea where I was.” It already felt like a distant, almost unreal memory, but the words still hit him hard. 

“Felix . . .” Changbin’s voice was so soft, so caring. He took Felix’s hands and looked them over as well. They were also rather torn up and Changbin frowned upon seeing them. “I didn’t know anything like this would happen. If I did, I would have stayed in here with you. I would have been more careful, more observant. I should have paid more attention.”

Felix shook his head. “No. None of this is your fault. It isn’t anyone’s. Whatever is doing this is going to do whatever it wants until we figure out how to stop it. It has never been something this drastic before though.”

“Yeah,” Changbin stressed. “No kidding. You could have been completely lost out there! I’m just glad you made it back. Even if you are a little worse for wear.”

“Yeah,” Felix sighed, leaning back onto his bed. The exhaustion was finally catching up to him.

“I think you need to get some sleep. We can patch you up in the morning.”

Felix nodded in agreement, moving to slide under the covers. He knew that he probably looked a mess, but he couldn’t be bothered to clean up at the moment. He wanted to sleep, but he was also terrified of ending up out in the woods again if he did. Changbin stood up from the bed and began to walk towards the door, but Felix suddenly felt terrified of being alone. 

“Binnie?” 

Changbin turned to look at him, questioning. “Yes?”

“Could you maybe . . . stay?” Felix felt like a child for asking such a question, but couldn’t help the fear growing inside of him. He didn’t want to be alone after what had just happened. 

Changbin smiled warmly. “Sure.”

The older crawled into bed beside Felix, keeping a good distance from him. It wasn’t much, but it still made Felix feel so much safer. He knew that there was no real rhyme or reason as to when they were controlled, but he made him feel better that Changbin was by his side. He fell asleep like that, curling up in the blankets, trying to keep warm. He felt safe. 

When Felix woke up it was already light outside, something he felt was becoming a rather common occurrence. He looked over to see Changbin sleeping peacefully beside him. His arms were wrapped tightly around the pillow he had been sleeping on. Felix gently slid out of the bed, more than thankful that he was still in the same place he was when he fell asleep. The previous night had been terrifying to say the least. He flinched when his feet met with the floor, pain spiking through him. He carefully padded his way to the bathroom, trying his best to ignore the pain. 

When Felix saw his reflection he realized how shocked Changbin must have been when he saw him the previous night. He looked terrible, like he had just crawled out of the grave. Felix promptly cleaned himself up, realizing that his pajamas were completely ruined. It felt better cleaning his small cuts and scrapes and Felix emerged from the bathroom almost feeling like a new person. 

Felix made his way back to his room to find that Changbin was no longer in the bed. Assuming he would have gone to the kitchen for breakfast, Felix made his way to the living room. He still didn’t see him there so he decided to check his friend’s room. Sure enough, Changbin sat at the desk in his room, scribbling something furiously on a sheet of paper in his notebook. This should seem pretty normal, but something about it just felt off to Felix for some reason. 

“Changbin?” he called lightly. There was no response. “Binnie,” He tried a little louder. Still nothing. Fear washed through his system. He walked carefully over to his friend, peeking over his shoulder to see what he was writing. 

Felix’s heart dropped to his stomach when he saw the word “It” scratched across the entirety of the paper, Changbin going over the letters over and over. “That’s not terrifying at all,” Felix whispered shakily. 

He reached out to touch his friend’s shoulder and Changbin jumped at the contact, spinning to face him. “Oh, Felix. You scared me.”

Felix knit his eyebrows together. “Changbin, do you know what you were just doing?”

Changbin’s expression immediately changed; he looked sick. “No . . .” Felix nodded his head to the desk and Changbin turned to look at what he had created. “That might be the most terrifying thing I have ever seen.”

“What does it mean?” Felix questioned.

“It don’t know. It’s really vague and I’m just hoping that it doesn't mean that scary clown is coming for us.”

Felix shrieked. “No! Why would you say that? Now I’m terrified!”

Changbin laughed and reached out to lay his hand on Felix’s arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. This is still really creepy though.”

Felix was going to pretend he never heard Changbin say anything about that horrifying clown for the sake of his mind. “Maybe it’s a part of a bigger message,” Felix offered. 

“Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It also somehow feels less ominous. But how do we know what the rest of the message is?”

“Maybe it will reveal itself over time?” Felix realized what the actual answer was right after the words left his mouth. “Or maybe we each only get a part of the message.”

“Well, there’s only two of us and if my word is “it” there’s not a whole lot we are going to gain from this.”

“No, it’s not just us. Chenle and Jisung forgot that entire day too.”

Changbin’s eyes widened. “You’re right. Do you think we should ask them about it?”

“Will they believe us?”

“Well, I believed you.”

Felix smiled. “I still don’t know why. I had to sound crazy.”

Changbin shrugged with a smile of his own. “Well things have been a little crazy lately. Your explanation didn’t seem so unrealistic.”

“What do you say we ask them about it on Sunday. They said they would be free later that day.”

“Oh, our friends also said they wanted to come over Sunday. Maybe hanging out with them earlier in the day will help us to forget all of this nonsense.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.”

“I wonder if your part of the message has anything to do with the reason you were out in the middle of the woods last night,” Changbin wondered aloud. 

“I don’t exactly want to go back out there and check,” Felix responded, knowing full well that he was going to go out to the tree and get the answers he wanted later. 

Felix and Changbin decided to get out of the house for the day, spending their time shopping and once again forgetting about what awaited them at home. They came back with bags full of clothes and other knickknacks they certainly didn’t need. Felix found himself feeling incredibly refreshed after the shopping trip, but a quick look out the window reminded him of what he still needed to do. 

Felix knew it was probably a bad idea considering how long he had been gone the last time he tried this, but he waited for Changbin to retreat to his room before sneaking outside. The sun had not begun to set yet, so Felix was holding out a hope that he might actually make it back within reasonable time. 

He found himself met with the intimidating tree looming over him once again, but he did not back away. He needed to know what he had been doing in the middle of the woods and what hint whatever was controlling them was trying to give them. He walked up to the tree and gently placed his hand on it, visions immediately washing over him. 

Felix was caught off guard when the visions picked up exactly where he had left off. He was not prepared to see himself trailing kisses down Changbin’s neck while the other’s hands slid further up his back. He almost jumped back in a panic. Almost. Felix allowed himself continue to watch the scene, desperate to know what had happened with him since then. He was thankful when the vision finally panned out to show all four boys because at least Felix had more to focus on when it was further away. 

Chenle and Jisung had separated and Chenle was now tapping something on the table. Felix would probably dismiss it if he didn’t know that they were all being possessed by something. That being said, he had no idea what it was supposed to mean. Felix watch himself climb off of his friend after giving him one last peck on the lips. He wandered away from the group and the vision followed him into his bedroom where he picked his phone up from the bedside table. 

Felix was mildly alarmed that whatever was controlling him knew how to work his smartphone, but he watched attentively as he went to the notes function and typed something before setting the phone back down. However, Felix was unable to see what he had typed before he climbed into bed and went to sleep. 

The vision switched and Felix was sitting up in his bed. He knew it was from the previous night. This must have been when he went into the woods. He wandered out of his room and straight into Changbin’s once again. He was reminded of when he sat at the foot of his bed and just stared at him, shivering at the unsettling memory. 

This time, however, Changbin was awake. He was sitting on his bed looking to the doorway as if waiting for Felix to enter. Felix watched himself stride over to Changbin place his hands on either side of his face and lean down to kiss him. Felix didn’t know why he was as surprised as he was. He also didn’t know why whatever was controlling them really liked them kissing. 

It went on a little longer than Felix would have preferred to witness before he finally stepped out of the room. Felix flinched as he watched himself walk out of the house without even bothering to put shoes on, suddenly remembering the pain in his feet. He watched himself wander out to the forest being their house, entering the trees without even a hint of hesitation. And that was it. He just kept walking. Further and further in. Felix had no idea what he was meant to gain from this and that somehow made it all the more terrifying. Why would he be just walking into the forest like this? Was the thing controlling him trying to kill him? He didn’t think so. It easily could have done that already. Then why?

The vision stopped without revealing anything else to him and Felix was back in the present. That was all? He found himself frustrated by the lack of information he had gathered from this excursion. He returned home, managing to sneak inside and into his room without Changbin noticing. It was dusk now, but he had not been out until dark this time.  
Felix had almost forgotten about what he had seen until he picked up his phone to ensure his alarm was set for the next day. He opened the notes on his phone and saw a new one he didn’t recognize. He opened it to find the only thing written was the letter “A.” That was really all he got? If the only clues Felix and Changbin were going to get were the words “it” and “a,” they were really going to need Chenle and Jisung. 

Sunday rolled around again without any more drastic incidents and all of their friends were over at their house again. They were all sitting around the coffee table where they had been playing a game of Jenga really badly. The last round had ended when Jeongin sneezed, scaring Felix into knocking the entire tower over. Now they were all talking about how things were going in their individual lives. Felix and Changbin mostly listened, not particularly eager to tell their friends they were being possessed in the house they were all currently in. 

“I will be traveling overseas for a dance competition next month,” Minho announced happily. He was met with a variety of positive responses, most of which involved yelling. 

Jisung turned to face Chan. “I’m going to need some time off. Looks like I’m going on a surprise trip.” Everyone laughed.

“You really don’t need to. If I don’t make it far in the competition I’ll be back within no time.”

“Shut up, you’ll do well and you know it,” Chan laughed. 

“No, you’ll win. You are amazing,” Jisung argued.

Minho smiled, mouthing a quiet “thank you.” “Now who wants to take care of my cats while I’m away?” They all groaned, but everyone was smiling. 

They continued to joke around while talking about their lives. Felix regretted not seeing them all more often. It felt nice to be able to catch up like this, all together. It was nice, comforting in a sort of chaotic way. That was, until Hyunjin decided to point out something that even Felix had not noticed. 

“Felix, is that a bite mark on your neck?” Hyunjin observed. Felix felt himself flush immediately. Oh how he really hoped it wasn’t. 

“A what?” he questioned, laughing nervously and hopefully dismissively. 

“Oh, that’s definitely what that is,” Seungmin corroborated, much to Felix’s dismay. 

Felix didn’t have to pretend to be surprised. He knew that whatever liked controlling him often made him kiss Changbin, but wasn’t this a little far? He slapped a hand over his neck protectively. “No, it can’t be.”

“Felix, did you start seeing someone and think you could hide it from us?” Chan questioned mischievously. Felix opened his mouth, but was unable to get any words out before Jeongin piped up. 

“Ooh! Who is it?” the youngest prompted. 

Felix knew he had to be completely red at this point. He didn’t know if he could be more embarrassed. He looked over everyone, wishing he could shrink away from their giddy gazes. His eyes met with Changbin’s. He was frowning and there was some emotion on his face that Felix couldn’t recognize. He looked . . . bothered. Felixed supposed the conversation was uncomfortable for him as well. Especially if he was thinking that Felix had been secretly sneaking out to make out with someone or sneaking them into their house. 

“I’m sure it’s just a bug bite, or something like that. A mosquito maybe,” Felix defended, not even really knowing for sure what he was covering for. 

Felix flinched as he watched all of his friends, save Changbin, share a look. “Biggest mosquito I’ve ever seen,” Woojin replied. Felix averted his gaze. What was he supposed to say? That he was pretty sure that Changbin did it when they were both being possessed by who knows what? First of all, even Changbin didn’t know about that yet. Secondly, Felix was pretty sure the mosquito excuse sounded like a more likely explanation.

“Please excuse me,” Changbin said, suddenly standing up. 

“Oh, sure,” Felix replied stupidly. With that, Changbin walked down the hall to the bathroom. 

“Sorry,” Chan apologized. “We really didn’t mean anything with the teasing.” The others nodded. 

Felix smiled, but his emotions were a mess. “I know.” Their conversation continued as normal, completely forgetting about the mark of Felix’s neck. Changbin returned a few minutes later, still looking a little downcast. He eventually brightened back up, but Felix could tell that he wasn’t all there. 

Felix felt an emotion that he couldn’t identify broiling in his stomach. He didn’t know what Changbin thought about the mark on his neck. Changbin didn’t know about what they had been doing when neither of them was in control. Felix really didn’t want him to think that he had found someone else when he hadn’t. It was still just the two of them and that’s how Felix wanted it to stay. Felix knew that he was still in love with Changbin and it almost made him feel sick to think that the other might think he is with someone else. 

Felix made up his mind then that he needed to show him what he was forgetting. When their friends left, when their neighbors came over, Felix would take them all to the tree. He would show them all. Then they could all solve this together. Felix wanted to do it alone, he didn’t want anyone else to see what he had. To him those kisses were so many things. They were wrong because he knew it wasn’t really either of them in control. It wasn’t right because it was his best friend and they didn’t have a relationship like that. It wasn’t them. But a part of Felix also knew that he wanted to keep it to himself for other reasons. It was something that he always dreamed of happening. It represented the love he wanted to give to Changbin, the love that he wanted to receive. 

But not like this. Felix knew that none of it was real. None of those kisses had really been them, had really been what they wanted. It was just something else trying to mess with their lives, with their relationship. However, it was also messing with Felix’s heart. He knew it shouldn’t affect him like this; he had tried to bury his love long ago. He was happy just being with Changbin and was over the moon about the fact that they got to share a house, but he also knew that he always longed for more, whether he was willing to admit it to himself or not. All of the small touches, exchanged glances, seemingly insignificant words. Felix wanted it all to mean more, but he was scared. He was scared of what would happen if it didn’t. He was scared of losing his friend. 

Despite all of his worries, all of his doubts, Felix knew that he had to show him. He deserved to know what he had been forgetting. He had believed Felix about them being controlled without the visions as concrete proof. The least Felix could do was make sure they were in this together, every last bit of the way. Even if it meant Changbin saw what they had been doing. Even if things changed. 

It reached the time in the day that their friends needed to leave, split off and do their own things. Felix wanted to talk to Changbin about what their friends had said, about the mark on his neck, but he lacked the courage. Instead, he excused himself to the restroom before they set off to their neighbors’ house. Once Felix looked in the mirror he immediately noticed the mark on his neck. He was unsure of how he managed to miss it in the morning and was surprised it took his friends so long to point it out.

He carefully touched his fingers to it. It was definitely a bite mark. Felix blushed just thinking about it, how it had to have gotten there. He wondered what his friends thought about him after seeing this and he so badly wanted to give them a reasonable explanation if only he had one. Felix sighed. He debated covering it with makeup, but the damage was already done and Changbin would find out how it got there anyways (Felix still wasn't entirely sure of the situation himself yet). 

It was more difficult to talk to Chenle and Jisung about the situation than Felix had originally expected. They were sitting around in their neighbors’ living room while Felix tried painstakingly to explain that they were being controlled. 

“That sounds ridiculous,” Jisung countered for probably the fifth time. 

“I’m telling the truth, really,” Felix stressed. “Haven’t you both been forgetting things recently?”

“Yes, but that does not mean there is something controlling us. That means we are becoming amnesiacs,” Chenle argued somewhat lightheartedly. Felix could tell that they were not taking him seriously.

“All of us? All around the same time? That doesn’t seem suspicious to you?” Felix countered. They actually seemed to stop and think about it. 

“I suppose it is a little strange,” Jisung conceded, much to Felix’s relief. “But what makes you say that specifically means something is controlling us? You don’t even know what it is!”

“Well . . .” Felix began, trailing off.  
“It’s what your friends said,” Changbin covered for him. He turned to Felix. “Right?”

Felix flinched. “Actually, Ten only told me where to find the answer.”

Changbin looked absolutely betrayed and it broke Felix’s heart. “What do you mean?”

Felix look away, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. “Don’t you want to know what you have been forgetting?”

“Felix, what do you mean?” Changbin repeated and Felix could feel the guilt seep down into his bones. 

“That’s not possible,” Chenle countered. “How do you think forgetting works?”

Felix finally looked back up to them. “Just . . . come with me.”

Felix could tell the entire walk up to their house that Changbin was upset with him and Chenle and Jisung still thought he was insane. Felix tried to ignore all of their gazes on him as he led them to the forest behind their house. 

“Here,” Felix announced, stopping in front of the tree that had been the source of so much trouble in his life. 

“Felix, this is a tree,” Chenle said, dumbfounded. Felix realized how crazy he had to look, but he really needed them to believe him. He couldn’t do this alone. 

“A really scary tree,” Jisung added. 

Felix took a deep breath. “I need you to touch it.” They all just stared at him.

“Lix, do you realize how crazy you sound right now?” Changbin replied. 

“Please,” Felix begged. 

Changbin met his eyes for a long stare before sighing. “Okay.”

He walked past Felix to the tree, but Felix grabbed his arm to stop him. “Wait. About what you will see . . . I . . .” But Felix didn’t know how to finish. He didn’t know what he wanted to say so he merely let the older go. Changbin looked at him like he had grown a second head before going over to the tree and carefully placing his hand on it. 

The second his hand make contact with the gnarled bark, Changbin gasped and froze. Felix knew that he was seeing things, the things that he had forgotten. It was strange to witness. He turned to look at Chenle and Jisung who now somehow looked even more confused than before.

“Please,” Felix pleaded again. “Just trust me.” They shared a look, but walked over and placed their hands on the tree anyways. 

Felix was now the only one left in the present. He looked at everyone he had managed to gather here and he feared what they would see. He walked over to join them, reaching out to place his shaking hand on the tree as well. 

Felix didn’t have a lot to catch up on given the fact that he had been coming here for a while, but he did want to know where the mark on his neck had come from. Or did he? The vision washed over him in a way that was almost familiar at this point. It was dark outside and both he and Changbin were nestled comfortably on the sofa. A movie played on the television that Felix recognized from only the night before. Felix had definitely thought he had just fallen asleep in the middle of the movie. 

The two boys were cuddled up into each other, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. It made Felix incredibly uncomfortable that it was able to take over even when they were already around each other like this. Even when Felix felt safe and protected, it could still control him. It wasn’t even something that was sudden. At first, it still seemed like them. No, the change was gradual. Felix almost didn’t notice himself getting closer to Changbin until he was already pretty much sitting on his lap. 

Felix felt himself squeak in surprise from where he stood at the base of the tree as Changbin’s arms circled around his waist. He would never get used to watching himself in third person like this, especially not in such a situation. He watched Changbin press a kiss to the back of his neck. Felix watched himself turn his entire body so that he was facing Changbin, connecting their lips. Changbin kept his arms around him, sliding them up his back underneath his shirt. Felix wanted to look away but he knew he couldn’t. The kiss deepened and Felix knew that he could force himself away from the tree if he really wanted to, but he also knew that the vision would pick back up here the next time he needed to know what happened when he wasn’t himself. He took a breath and continued to watch .

Felix was on top of Changbin again. It was so similar to the first time Felix had seen himself kissing Changbin that it sent chills down his arms. The difference was that this time they were alone. That somehow made it feel even more dangerous. Their lips parted and Felix could feel himself breathing heavy. They kissed again. And again. It felt endless and the house was entirely silent aside from this, so every sound echoed within Felix’s ears.

His hands were tangled in Changbin’s hair and Changbin moved his kisses from Felix’s lips to his jaw and then to his neck. He watched his friend pepper kisses lightly down his neck before finally biting down. Felix gasped like he actually felt it even though he knew he couldn’t. When he removed his mouth, Felix could see a familiar red mark forming on his skin, but Changbin’s didn’t just leave it. He pressed his lips back to the spot, licking over it as if to soothe the pain.

Felix hated in this moment how jealous he was of his past self, of this thing controlling him. He wanted to know what it felt like for himself. He wanted so badly for Changbin to kiss him like this, to love him. But, at the same time, Felix knew that this wasn’t love. This wasn’t them. But still Felix _wanted_ it. He wanted to be able to kiss Changbin freely. For the other to want to kiss him. It was all so intimate and it felt so wrong watching it when Felix remembered that their relationship was not really like this, but a part of him still hoped that maybe it really could be like this for them some day. 

This time, instead of Felix pressing kisses to Changbin’s face it was the other way around. Felix knew that it wasn’t possible since neither of them were themselves, but everything about the action felt so intimate and so loving. It felt surreal watching his friend hold his face in his hands and press kisses to his cheeks, his nose, his forehead. With a final peck to the lips, the two separated. 

The vision finally darkened when the two curled back into each other, just as they had been before, closing their eyes. Felix found himself shakily backing away from the tree, frightened by his own thoughts. What was he thinking? None of this was real. There was no emotion in any of that. Neither of them were in control. Neither of them even remembered it. It wasn't right. That wasn’t love; it wasn’t anything. 

Felix pushed all of these thoughts to the back for his brain, instead focusing on his friends who were all still standing at the base of the tree. It really was a strange sight and would have been terrifying to simply stumble on, but Felix knew what they were going through. He could only imagine the emotions racing through their heads. Felix looked to Changbin and knew that he probably would not view him the same after what he was seeing. That was the kind of stuff that could really mess someone up and Felix could argue that it had already been messing with him a fair deal. 

Felix remembered that the first time he had come out here he had ended up coming home in the middle of the night and the three who were there now had even more than that to catch up on. Felix had a feeling they were all going to be there for a while so he decided to make the best of it. It hadn’t started to get dark just yet, but it was getting fairly close. With that in mind, Felix made his way back to the house where he set about gathering supplies. He returned to the tree with jackets, blankets, and some food because if he was going to be waiting he might as well have some snacks. 

He threw jackets over everyone's shoulders, unable to actually put them on without detaching them from the tree. To help with this, Felix also decided to throw on some blankets for extra layering. He knew himself how cold it could get at night and he didn’t want his friends to have to suffer through it was well. Chenle and Jisung were close enough together that Felix was able to sling one of the blankets over both of them, but he had to wrap one around Changbin separately. He felt almost like he was caring for statues and it was kind of creepy if he was being honest, but he was just happy to help. 

As for himself, Felix lay the last blanket on the ground and plopped himself down. He had thrown on a jacket before leaving the house so he wouldn’t get cold. He looked up at his friends, still entirely unmoving, before pulling out his phone, ready to waste some time. 

Felix’s phone battery was at a whole two percent and he was fighting off sleep only by shoving food in his mouth by the time there was any movement. Felix looked up to see Jisung literally stumbling away from the tree. The blanket that Felix had set over him and Chenle fell to the ground, but the jacket still somehow clung to his shoulders. Felix was standing within seconds, rushing over to steady the younger. 

Jising didn’t even notice Felix at first. His hands were over his mouth and his eyes were wide. Felix gave him a light shake to hopefully snap him back into reality. The younger spun to face him. The moon was bright, allowing Felix to see a lot more than he would usually be able to at night. 

“It wasn’t me! That wasn’t . . . I . . .” The younger stumbled over his words, seemingly in shock or disbelief. Felix had a pretty good feeling he knew why. He met Felix’s eyes, searching. “Why . . . why would . . .?”

Felix shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You and Changbin, you aren’t . . .?” He didn’t have to finish the sentence for Felix to know what he meant. 

He shook his head. “No.”

“But . . .”

“I know,” Felix sighed. “I don’t know what it wants, but it seems to really enjoy messing with our relationships.”

Jisung shivered and rubbed his arms. “This is so creepy.”

Felix laughed dryly. “You’re telling me. I woke up in the middle of the woods one night.”

Jisung squeaked. “That’s terrifying. I didn’t think anything terrifying was happening to me, but I also just watched myself write “REALITY” on my window in red lipstick and then close the curtains. I have now realized that I would have seen that if I ever actually opened the curtains. At least now I’ll know it’s not some creepy murderer that did it.”

Felix realized this must be another clue as to what whatever this was was trying to tell them, but he was distracted by a part of what Jisung had said. “Why did you have red lipstick?” Felix didn’t want to make any assumptions, but he also had not seen any of them wearing it and he couldn’t help his curiosity. 

“Oh, Chenle impulse bought it when we went out one day. He never ended up using it thought and I doubt he will be able to after that.” Jisung rubbed his arms again, but Felix could tell that, this time, it was because he was cold. He gestured to the jacket he had draped over the younger’s shoulders and the other slipped his arms into it. 

It was at this moment that Chenle snapped back into reality. How could Felix tell? Well, he was suddenly shocked out of his thoughts as an extremely high pitched shriek sounded from behind him. He spun around to see Chenle flinging his jacket off of him.

“What was that?” he screeched. “There’s no way any of that was real! I wouldn’t! I couldn’t!” He met Jisung’s eyes and froze. “I . . .” Suddenly, he shivered. 

“Chenle, I gave you a jacket and a blanket. It’s clear that you are cold,” Felix explained, hoping he would calm down. He understood perfectly well how the younger felt. 

Jisung picked the jacket up off of the ground and handed it to him. Chenle watched him carefully, allowing the youngest to slip the jacket on to him and then throw the blanket over his shoulders. Chenle pulled it together in front of him, trying to keep in as much warmth as possible. “Jisung,” he whispered. “Did you . . .?”

“I saw it too,” Jisung responded. “It’s okay. It wasn’t us. None of that was.”

“But I . . .” Chenle trailed off, simply staring into the other’s eyes. 

Felix was distracted from the scene when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see Changbin slowly moving away from the tree. Felix watched him slowly slip his arms through the sleeves of the jacket and pull the blanket further around himself before turning to face the others. “Felix,” he began softly. “Were you going to tell me?”

Felix bit his lip and looked away. He shook his head. “It was easier to show you.” He looked back up the meet his friend’s eyes. “I didn’t want to at first. But after today . . .” Felix could see Changbin’s eyes go to his neck. Felix blushed and he hoped Changbin couldn’t see it with how dark it was. The sky was beginning to lighten and Felix knew that it was almost sunrise. He had been awake all night and the sleepiness was suddenly hitting him hard. 

“That was . . .” Changbin took a step closer and Felix gulped. Somehow, now that he knew, things already felt different. There was something different in the air and Felix didn’t know what it was or how he felt about it. “This whole time . . .”

“My lipstick!” Chenle shouted. Felix was thankful for the distraction as both boys turned to see what was going on, though Felix already felt like he had a pretty good idea. 

“You were never going to wear that anyways. We had it forever,” Jisung argued. 

“That doesn’t mean you had to destroy it!”

“It wasn’t me!”

Chenle thought for a second. “This is an unfortunate loophole.” He turned to the tree and dramatically shook his fist at it. “Curse you!”

“That’s what makes you want to curse the tree?” Felix questioned, laughter in his voice. “Out of all that you saw.”

“Oh no,” Chenle explained. “That’s one of many reasons; destroying my lipstick before I could use it; controlling my body; kissing Jisung before I could; making me do creepy things like stare at nothing for, like, a really long time.”

“What what?” Jisung questioned and Felix had to admit that even he was caught off guard by what Chenle had said. 

“What, you mean you didn’t just stare at things? Was that just a me thing?” Felix couldn’t tell if Chenle was doing this on purpose or not. 

“No,” Jisung replied, somehow forceful and yet shy at the same time. “You know what I mean.”

“Oh!” Chenle smiled brightly. “I have wanted to kiss you for a long time.” Jisung squeaked in surprise and Chenle giggled. 

“Chenle!” The youngest exclaimed. 

“What? I mean it. I thought it was obvious that I liked you.” Chenle stepped closer to the other. Jisung shook his head violently. Now that Felix thought about it, he could suddenly see a different meaning in all of those times Chenle teased or was touchy with Jisung. Felix supposed it should have been rather obvious, but clearly Jisung was as oblivious to this kind of this as Felix was.

“Do you . . . still want to?” Jising asked suddenly and Felix was surprised by his sudden burst of confidence. Even in the dark Felix could see Chenle raise an eyebrow. “Kiss me, that is.”

Chenle’s smile was bright enough that Felix could almost feel his happiness. He threw his arms around Jisung and kissed him happily. Felix almost wanted to clap, it was so cute. It was so different from what he had seen in his memories. Everything about this felt so happy, so right. Felix felt Changbin come up to his side. They shared a smile, forgetting about themselves for the moment to be happy for their friends. When the two finally separated they were both smiling and laughing breathlessly. 

Felix couldn’t fight the urge to cheer and Changbin began to clap as well. Jisung and Chenle turned to them, looking embarrassed, but still smiling stupidly. “Who would have known all it took was being possessed for you two to get together,” Felix joked, earning a laugh from Changbin. 

“Don’t tell me even you knew before I did!” Jisung complained. 

“Oh no, I was as oblivious as you, but now that I know a lot of things suddenly make a lot more sense,” Felix explained with a laugh. Suddenly, he remembered what Jisung had told him about the lipstick. “Oh, Changbin! Jisung said he wrote the word “reality” on his window.”

“Great,” Changbin replied, half sarcastically, half seriously. “Now we have ‘It reality.’ Oh, or maybe ‘Reality it.’”

“Ha ha,” Felix “laughed,” swatting at his friend’s arm. They both smiled. “I forgot to tell you that I found the letter ‘a’ in a note on my phone.”

“Well that changes everything!” Changbin said sarcastically, eyes wide. 

Felix laughed and swatted at him once again. “Shut up!”

“What are you talking about?” Chenle asked. 

“We think that whatever is controlling us is trying to send us a message,” Felix explained. 

“And it’s really terrible at it,” Changbin added. 

“Oh, is that why I was tapping the word “make” in morse code in that memory?” Chenle questioned and Felix felt his mouth drop open. 

“That’s what you were doing?” Felix asked, incredulous at the same time Jisung turned to him and asked “You know morse code?”

Chenle shrugged. “It wasn’t the weirdest thing I saw in all of that so I almost just disregarded it,” he replied, managing to dodge Jisung’s question. 

“Make it a reality.” Felix looked over to Changbin at his words, confused. “That’s the message.”

“Well what do we do with that?” Chenle complained. “Make what a reality?”

Felix could tell the others were arguing about the meaning of the phrase, but he was suddenly too deep in his thoughts to hear a word they were saying. How on earth were they supposed to figure out what that meant? Is that really all it was going to give them? Felix was hoping their hint would have been something more specific, but clearly he was being too hopeful. Was this thing trying to tell him to go and run into the middle of the woods on purpose because he was certainly not doing that. 

There was nothing that Felix could think of that would logically follow this message unless, of course, it had yet to happen. Felix shivered at the thought, dreading what they were going to have to face in the future. He wished he could talk to the boys that lived here before, ask them what sorts of things happened to them. Though, Felix got the feeling they didn’t want to share. 

“What now?” Felix was shaken out of his thoughts quite literally when Changbin gave his shoulder a gentle shake. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know what it wants or how to stop it. But . . . at least now you know what you forgot,” Felix replied. 

“So we just have to continue to live with this?” Jisung asked, upset. 

Felix flinched. “Until we can figure out how to ‘make it a reality.’”

Chenle and Jisung groaned simultaneously. “Now I just know that we are being controlled and something is making me do weird things. I think I might have preferred when I thought I was just forgetting,” Chenle complained. 

Felix could agree with that, except that he couldn’t. “Yeah, that’s all nice until you end up with one of these and no idea how it got there.” He gestured to his neck and saw Chenle squinting to try and see what he was talking about. When he realized he let out a high pitched laugh. Felix adjusted his jacket to cover it, embarrassed, before gesturing to Jisung. “Or when you open the curtains to see ‘reality’ written in red lipstick.”

“Yeah, you’re right that would be more terrifying if I didn’t know what was going on,” Chenle conceded. 

“I feel like I should say thank you, but also I don’t know if I should say thank you for showing me what I was doing when I was being possessed. This is a strange situation,” Jising said. 

“You got that right!” Changbin chimed. 

Felix yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. The sun had begun to rise, bathing the trees in a golden light and casting shadows all around them. He felt his eyelids growing heavy and he was struggling to stay awake. It suddenly hit him just how long he had been awake. As if by chain reaction all of the other boys yawned after him. 

“How bad would you feel about missing another day of work?” Felix asked Changbin with a tired smile. 

“I’ll submit work from home whenever I wake up,” the other responded. 

“Snap, we’re going to miss our classes!” Jisung exclaimed. 

“I am not going,” Chenle responded. The rising sun was exposing just how tired they all looked. “I stayed up all night touching a demon tree. I am going to bed.” Jisung opened his mouth before sleepily nodding in agreement. They both handed Felix back his jackets and blanket, insisting that the walk was not long enough for them to need it. 

Both pairs of boys sleepily hobbled home, Felix doing his best to gather and carry back everything he had brought outside for the others. He was amazed he made it home without collapsing. He threw everything on the floor when he entered the door and made his way to the sofa, throwing himself onto it and closing his eyes. He was so tired that everything else simply disappeared in that moment and he was asleep. 

He woke up the next day to a knock at the door. He sat up, stretching and taking in his surroundings. It had to be well into the afternoon by now and he felt like he had slept well, even though he was surprised he hadn’t slept into the day after if he was honest. The knock sounded again and Felix managed to pick himself up off of the furniture. He noticed that he was alone and assumed Changbin must have actually made it back to his bedroom, unlike him. 

Felix walked over to the door, realizing that he still had his shoes on, kicking aside the pile of things he had left the previous night to open the door. Chan and Woojin stood on the other side, looking at him like concerned parents. Felix hummed what he believed was a hello. 

“Did you just wake up?” Chan questioned immediately. 

“Yes.” It was the only simple word Felix felt that he could get out in terms of an explanation. 

“Are you okay?” Woojin asked, clearly concerned. 

“You and Changbin have been calling off a lot more recently and you both seemed a little off yesterday. Is everything okay?” 

“Oh. That’s just the demons.” Felix was pretty sure he couldn’t control what was coming out of his mouth right now and they were really testing him with all of these questions right after he woke up. He heard a door open in the distance and, before he knew it, Changbin was walking up to the door with him. 

“Is that Chan?” he asked sleepily. “Tell him I’ll send in my work when I properly wake up.”

“Changbin!” Chan called over Felix’s shoulder. “Can you explain to me why Felix just gave me ‘demons’ as an excuse for why you have both been missing work?”

Changbin finally made it to the door and Felix shuffled over to make room for him to be seen. “Oh that’s . . . a complicated situation,” he explained. 

Chan and Woojin shared a look. “Can we come in?” Woojin asked. 

This time, it was Felix and Changbin’s turn to share exchange a glance. Felix eyeballed the giant pile of things he had kicked out of the way. “It’s . . . messy,” Felix replied. Chan simply fixed him with a steady state. Felix sighed, moving aside to let them in. 

The second they stepped into the house, closing the door behind them, Felix could see their attention go to the pile of jackets and blankets lying on the floor. “Did you two go out somewhere last night?” Chan questioned. He sounded like an overprotective parent and honestly that’s kind of what he was to them. 

“And were you freezing or were there more people?” Woojin added and Felix gave him a quizzical look. Woojin gestured to the pile and then to him. “There is more than one jacket in that pile with the blankets and you are already wearing one. And your shoes, at that. Weren’t you sleeping before we got here?”

Felix did not appreciate all of the questions and he felt like he was being judged on his lifestyle even though most of what was going on recently was against his will. “I was really tired, okay? And yes, we did go out last night. With Chenle and Jisung.”

“Your neighbors?” Chan questioned. Felix and Changbin both nodded. “What on earth did you do that you needed all of these things, go for a picnic in the woods at midnight?”

“Actually, you’re not that far off,” Changbin answered. Felix was quickly waking up with the direction of the conversation. He realized the gravity of what they were saying and how insane they had to be starting to sound. 

“Alright, I’m somehow more concerned now than I was before. Start explaining,” Chan demanded, plopping himself down on the sofa. Woojin immediately joined him, giving Felix and Changbin a pointed look. 

Felix groaned. He didn’t know how they were supposed to explain that they were being possessed when they could barely make their neighbors believe it and they were going through the same thing. Quietly, Felix felt someone take his hand. He looked over to see Changbin giving him a reassuring smile. Felix took a deep breath and dove into a lengthy explanation. 

“Well what are you going to do about it?” Woojin asked after being quiet for all of Felix and Changbin’s story. They had retold most of the story, conveniently leaving out the kissing parts. “You can’t just keep allowing it to screw with your lives like this.”

Changbin and Felix shared a look of disbelief. “Wait,” Changbin began. “You believe us?”

“Well, yeah,” Chan replied as if the answer was obvious. “We just sat here through a very detailed explanation that both of you told together. If you honestly made that up, I sincerely applaud you for your phenomenal acting.”

“But you believe that we are being possessed? Just like that,” Felix questioned, not trusting how easily they believed them. 

“I’ve seen how you two have been acting recently,” Chan explained. “Honestly, all considered, this actually makes the most sense.”

Felix was still completely dumbfounded. He really needed to be more grateful for his friends. Changbin had believed him without proof at first as well, and now both Chan and Woojin. Felix didn’t know what he did to deserve them. “That didn’t answer my question,” Woojin reminded them. “What are you going to do about it?”

Changbin laughed awkwardly. “We don’t exactly know yet.”

“Well that’s a problem,” Chan replied. 

Felix laughed. “Yeah. Kind of. We just have to live with it until we can figure out what it wants.”

“Please take care of yourselves,” Chan commanded, eyebrows knit together. “We need to get going.” He and Woojin stood, making their way to the door. 

“We will try,” Changbin responded. 

“And please clean up a little,” Woojin added as they were stepping out the door. “The house and yourselves.” Felix laughed and gave him a thumbs up before they disappeared. 

Felix turned back to Changbin and started laughing at how tired he looked. The other looked annoyed for a moment before he started laughing too. “I know it’s already late afternoon at this point, but I kind of want to go back to sleep,” Changbin said with a smile. 

“Me too,” Felix groaned. “Maybe in pajamas this time. And in bed.”

Changbin laughed. “Good idea.”

Felix felt his stomach growl as he was finally taking his shoes off and throwing his jacket into the pile instead of cleaning it up. He could put things away later, after more sleep. “Actually, I think my body wants food first,” Felix said, correcting his previous statement. 

Changbin’s eyes widen in what Felix knew was agreement and realization. “Good point.”

They made themselves what they thought should probably constitute a full meal before crashing once again. Changbin actually followed through on what he said and sent Chan some of the music he had been working on before going back to sleep. Everything seemed to return somewhat to normal by the next day. They went to work and were greeted as if nothing happened. Another week passed with seemingly no incidents and it seemed far too good to be true. 

They decided to invite Chenle and Jisung over after their classes one day to talk to them again. They hadn’t really had the chance to see them since Felix took them to the tree and Felix was curious as to what had been happening with them. Felix was still afraid to go to sleep sometimes, scared to wake up in the middle of the woods again, but nothing had seemed to be happening recently. 

Felix noticed when they all sat down in their living room that Chenle and Jisung sat much closer than they used to. They announced to them that they were officially a couple and Felix couldn’t help but to feel happy for them. 

“After what you showed us, Jisung and I decided it would be a good idea to keep track of our time. We have started to log everything we do,” Chenle explained, pulling out a notebook and waving it in the air. 

“Has it helped?” Changbin asked, curious. 

“So far, there hasn’t seemed to be anything out of the ordinary. Actually, I don’t think I have forgotten anything recently. Nothing more than I normally would,” Jisung answered.  
“Really? I feel like I haven’t been forgetting much either,” Felix admitted. “I wonder if we did something to make it stop. Or at least, calm down a little.”

“Actually . . .” Changbin began and Felix felt his stomach sink. He had really thought that they had done something. That they might have actually made it for a reasonable period of time without anything happening. Clearly he had been wrong. “There was something for me.”

Felix turned to look at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Changbin looked down. “I think it’s something you need to see.”

Felix paused and looked down as well, his brains struggling to process what he meant. “See? But if it’s something that happened to you . . .?” He looked back up to meet the other’s eyes. He still didn’t entirely realize what the other meant, but he knew it must have something to do with him. 

The four spent the rest of their time simply talking and playing games with each other and, for a little while, it was almost like nothing had happened. Felix always wished he could keep these moments, live in them forever. Moments when everything seemed normal. Moments when he could easily forget about how he was being controlled on a regular basis. Oh how he longed for the normality he had before. 

Felix waited for their neighbors to leave before telling Changbin that he was going out to the tree. Changbin gave him a knowing smile.

“I’ll wait here for when you come back. You never know how long it will take.”

Felix gave him a bright smile. “Thanks.”

As he walked out to the tree in the dimming light of dusk, he felt his stomach do turns, wondering what he was going to see. What would Changbin tell him that he needed to see? What did he remember that Felix didn’t?

When Felix made it to the tree and dove into the visions, he was surprised at the amount of things he didn’t even realize were off. The visions were short and jumped from one to the next quickly. It consisted mostly of him simply walking into other rooms or simply pausing to stare at nothing, but there was no wandering into the woods this time. Felix was beginning to think the visions would get to the end without anything big happening when he watched himself waking up in the middle of the night again. He felt his stomach twist, already getting a bad feeling about where this was going. 

He watched himself slowly make his way into Changbin’s room, but something was different this time. Changbin was sitting on his bed above the covers, knees drawn up, scrolling through his phone. Felix already knew that what was controlling them knew how to use phones, but something about Changbin just seemed so, well, _him_. He turned to look when Felix opened the door. 

“Felix?” Hearing his name come out of Changbin’s mouth surprised Felix badly. From what Felix had seen, they couldn’t speak when they were being controlled. Changbin wasn’t being possessed. He was awake. 

Felix watched himself walk closer to the bad and he wanted to reach out and stop himself. Changbin slid his legs over the side of the bed, turning fully to him. He looked confused and Felix felt terrible. He was held captive to what he was seeing, watching himself place a hand on Changin’s cheek. His friend looked even more confused now. 

He watched as he leaned down and planted his lips on Changbin’s. Changbin’s eyes were wide in surprise. His hands almost instinctively went to Felix’s hips and Felix didn’t know how to feel about what he was watching. He watched himself pull back from the kiss. Looking at Changbin like he was starved for more and it was a look Felix never thought he would see on his face. 

“Lix?” Changbin questioned again, his voice wavering. Felix could feel his heart breaking. He wanted to scream that this wasn’t him. But he knew it wouldn’t do any good. 

He leaned back in for another kiss, hands sliding down to Changbin’s neck. This time, Changbin closed his eyes, but it only lasted for a moment. Felix was surprised when he saw Changbin reach up and push him away. He drew his legs back up onto the bed and tilted his body away. 

“No,” he said, voice raw. “This isn’t you. You aren’t Felix. You need to stop.” Felix reached out to him and he flinched away. He withdrew his hand and Felix was glad that what was controlling him had at least some common sense. “Please,” Changbin whispered, curling up into himself and it sounded so _broken_. Felix watched as he left Changbin’s room, returning to his and falling asleep, leaving Changbin alone. 

The vision ended and Felix found himself gasping when he could finally move again. “That was . . .what . . .” He covered his mouth with his hands. His heart was beating at a million miles an hour and his brain was refusing to function. What was that?

He had kissed Changbin again, but this time he was awake. He hadn’t pushed him away at first. It seemed to have taken him a minute to figure out what was going on. Felix really didn’t know what to make of what he had just seen, so he pushed it to the back of his mind until he could at least make it back to his room. 

It was dark outside, but he had stopped caring at some point. He used to think it was scary, but he thinks he has finally just accepted it. He made it back to the house to see that Changbin had fallen asleep on the sofa. He smiled at the sight of his friend curled up, hugging a pillow, waiting for him. Felix went to his room to grab a blanket to throw over him and he was reminded of when they first moved in. 

Felix remembered watching himself leave Changbin alone in the memory and he still felt guilty for it, even though he knew it wasn’t really him. He couldn’t imagine how Changbin had to feel after that. He decided he could at least be with him now. Felix grabbed another blanket and settled on one of the other sofas.

He gave himself time to think about what he saw before drifting into sleep. He looked over to his sleeping friend and smiled once again, but he couldn’t help but wonder what was going on inside of his head. He had let Felix kiss him. But he had also pushed him away. However, Felix also had to take into account that none of this was even really him. 

He groaned, turning over. He didn’t know what he was supposed to think of any of this. All he knew was that it was turning his insides to mush and he could feel himself falling even further. Changbin had looked so broken when he realized what was going on. He was confused and then he was distraught and Felix hated being on the other end of those emotions. Felix wondered how he would feel if Changbin suddenly kissed him like that only to find out that it wasn’t really him. 

Felix knew that he would be crushed, but that was only because of his feelings for the other. Felix still didn’t know how Changbin felt about all for the kissing in the first place. He had been treating Felix normally, like he had never seen any of it, but that situation had to be more than hard to forget. Felix hated that this was how things were playing out. He hated that he finally got to kiss Changbin and it wasn’t even really him. There was nothing there, no emotions. Felix wanted Changbin so badly, but not like this. He fell asleep with these thoughts on his mind, worrying about what was going to happen to them and if they would ever just be able to be themselves again. 

The two decided that it would be a good idea to keep journals just as Chenle and Jisung has suggested and Felix had to admit that it was wildly helpful. He didn’t realize just how much he had really been forgetting until he had to try and think back to it. That being said, Felix did seem to at least stay in his house. There had been no more scenarios like his. It was mostly small things like waking up in different parts of the house or not remembering how he got into a room. He realized that he could still be going out at night and he would be none the wiser, but Felix didn’t like to think about that. 

It was Saturday morning and Felix was startled awake by Changbin literally shaking him. It wasn’t violent, but it still disturbed his peaceful sleep. Felix let his eyes flutter open, but he wasn’t about to sit up and wake himself up further. He hummed questioningly to let his friend know that he was at least somewhat paying attention. 

“Lix, have you seen my notes?” he whispered, loud enough for Felix to hear, but not enough to shake him fully awake. Felix could tell he was trying not to disturb him too much and he was almost awake enough to be grateful. 

He barely managed to mumble the word, “Notes?” Felix had no idea what he was talking about, though he had to admit that likely had something to do with the fact that he was still half asleep.

“My notes for one of the songs I have been working on. They aren’t where I left them.” He sounded somewhat frantic and Felix figured he must have to leave for work soon.  
Felix managed to slightly shake his head and whisper a “no” before closing his eyes and cuddling back up into his blankets. He really did hope that Changbin found what he was looking for, but he wasn’t ready to get up for anything right now. 

The next time Felix woke up, it was on his own, the early morning sun streaming through his window. He sat up and stretched before throwing off the blankets. He was ready to jump out of bed when he noticed a few papers flit to the floor. Were those in the bed with him? 

He leaned down to pick the papers up off of the ground. He immediately recognized Changbin’s handwriting when he looked at them and the conversation he had earlier came rushing back to him. These must be the notes Changbin was looking for. Felix felt terrible. He should have gotten up and tried to help him find what he was looking for. Then he would have found them here and Changbin wouldn’t be going to work with out his, well, work. Felix didn’t have to think too hard to figure out how these could have gotten in bed with him, but he did wonder when he managed to do it. 

Felix was about to go on a hunt for his phone so that he could call Changbin to tell him that he found his notes, but Felix suddenly couldn’t help his curiosity. Changbin hadn’t showed him anything he had been working on lately or even talked about it, but he seemed to be working on it very diligently. Felix couldn’t help but wonder just what he had been doing all of this time. 

At their company, they often got to work closely and personally with the artists so that they could get a good feel of songs to write for them. A lot of times Felix found himself getting caught up in the stories that they wanted to tell and working extra hard to write lyrics to help them. He found that he could even sometimes relate to them and felt that he did his best in writing lyrics that he could connect to as well as the artist he was giving them to. 

Looking at the first page he had picked up, Felix could see that Changbin had been taking notes for a theme that the artist wanted to work with. However, it was the next couple of pages that really caught his attention. One page was a jumble of notes that would have seemed nonsensical to anyone else, but Felix recognised them as parts of a song he had heard Changbin working on recently. The other was filled with lyrics. There was no logical order or organization to the words, but they still struck a chord within Felix. They were much more emotional than Felix had expected and something about them felt so earnest. They were about longing and love and Felix couldn’t help but to get invested in the story they told. It hit so close to home for him and he was surprised at just how much they affected him. 

However, it wasn’t just this that caught his attention. If the lyrics weren’t enough to stir something in him, Changbin had made several doodles and scribbles in the free spaces on both the paper with the chords and the lyrics. A few were simply drawings relating to some of the lyrics or what looked like just squiggles, but Felix felt his stomach do somersaults at what else he saw. Felix’s name was scratched into one of the margins with hearts surrounding it. On the page with the lyrics Changbin had written his nickname within a heart as well. 

Felix felt his heartbeat quicken and his insides turn to mush. For a moment, he thought that this could very well be the work of whatever was controlling them—he had seen it using Changbin to write before, after all—but this was very distinctly Changbin’s handwriting. Once again, Felix was left with his thoughts jumbled and his emotions a mess. He knew what this would seem to mean if it was anyone else, but Felix really hated to get his hopes up. But why else would Changbin write his name with hearts? 

Felix groaned and fell back onto his bed, holding the papers to his chest. His emotions had been all over the place lately and he hated just how much he was letting every little thing get to him. He resolved to forget about his emotions until he could mull over them for longer. For now, he needed to get these papers back to Changbin. 

Felix did the bare minimum to get ready to leave the house. He didn’t have to work and he planned on only staying out long enough to deliver these notes and then come right back home. The second he walked through the door of the company building one his his coworkers gave him an extremely confused look, almost as if he wasn’t sure he was really seeing Felix. Felix laughed and held up the papers in his hand. 

“Changbin lost his notes,” he explained. 

His coworker smiled. “How sweet of you to come all this way just to bring them to him. I know that you two live pretty far away now too. I envy your relationship sometimes. My wife would never bring something in for me. She always just tells me that it’s my own fault for forgetting it.” He laughed. 

Felix was more surprised by what he had said than he should have been. He was comparing his and Changbin’s relationship to his with his wife? What was that supposed to mean? Was it really so strange for Felix to be bringing in his friend’s work? He was right about them living pretty far away. “Oh, no,” he quickly defended. “He just seemed really distraught about losing them this morning and I only found them after he left.”

His coworker shrugged, but Felix could tell that he didn’t believe that’s all there was to it. “Whatever you say. But I wouldn’t drive for almost an hour just to return a few papers for just anyone.” At that, he walked away, going back to whatever he was doing before Felix had gotten there. 

Felix headed for Changbin’s office, trying to shake off the conversation, but his coworker’s words kept niggling their way into his mind anyways. What did mean “for just anyone?” Of course Changbin wasn’t just anyone; he was his best friend. It was only natural for him to want to help him like this. Right? Felix shook his head, frustrated at how much he was letting a few simple words get to him.

Felix lightly knocked on Changbin’s office door. He heard a slight hum as a response from the other side and decided that was enough incentive to swing it open. Changbin spun his chair around to face the door when he heard it open. The surprise on his face was immediate the second he saw who had entered. 

“Felix!” he exclaimed. “But you don’t have work today?” The last part came out sounding very confused and Felix almost wanted to laugh. 

Felix held up his notes. “I found these.”

Changbin stood up as soon as he saw his notes. He walked over to Felix who handed them over promptly. “Thank you,” he said, clutching them close. “Where were they?”

Felix laughed awkwardly. “In my bed?” Changbin gave him a strange look and he explained. “It must have had me steal them. They were literally in bed with me.”

Changbin sighed before looking down at the notes to make sure everything was there. He looked back up to meet Felix’s eyes. “You didn’t read them . . . did you?”

Felix felt his heart drop into his stomach. He couldn’t find it in himself to speak so he simply nodded. He could literally see that way that Changbin swallowed. Felix still didn’t know what to think about what he had seen. 

Changbin was his friend. His friend who he did everything with. His friend who he worked with. His friend who he lived with. His friend who he drove all the way here on his day off just to return notes to. His friend that he has had the biggest crush on almost since he met him. But it wasn’t a crush anymore and Felix knew that. He had tried to focus on just his friendship for so long. He buried all of his other feelings for Changbin, all of his hopes for romance. He was happy just being friends with him. He was happy to be close to him so often. 

However, with all that had been happening recently, his feelings were suddenly overwhelming him. He no longer knew how he felt about anything. Watching himself kiss Changbin like that. Felix _wanted_. He had told himself that he would be okay with friendship so long as he still got to be with Changbin, but now that he had seen what he could have, he needed it. He felt like he was suddenly reading into everything his friend did, hoping for it to mean more. 

Felix was in love with Changbin. He had been for a long time. The way he smiled. His ridiculous loud laugh. How he was always looking out for Felix, even when it wasn’t easy. How they could cuddle on the couch and watch horror movies that would scare Felix for the next several days. How hard he worked on music and how much of his soul he poured into it. Everything about him just had Felix so taken. 

He wanted to be able to tell him. He wanted to give Changbin all of the love he deserved. He wanted to be able to hold him, to kiss him whenever he wanted. But he was terrified. Terrified of getting hurt. Terrified that he wouldn’t feel the same. However, standing here, watching his friend shyly clutch his notes to his chest—notes that had Felix’s name written with hearts— Felix decided he was worth taking a chance on. 

He took a step forward so that he was even closer to Changbin. “The lyrics were really beautiful,” he whispered. 

Changbin smiled. “You would say that. Writing lyrics is literally your job.”

Felix laughed. “I mean it, they feel very . . . real.”

Changbin’s smile softened and he looked away. Felix noticed him fidgeting with his hands before his eyes flicked back up to his own. “Felix . . . about what was on my notes . . .”

Felix knew very well what he was talking about. They were close and Felix’s heart was about to beat out of his chest with the direction the conversation was taking. Felix couldn’t keep his eyes from flitting to Changbin’s lips before going back up to his eyes. “Binnie,” he whispered. “I—”

Suddenly, the door came flying open and Felix jumped away from Changbin immediately, startled. 

“Changbin, I could have sworn I just saw Felix. I think I’m losing my mind,” Jisung rambled as he came bursting into the room. He took a second to take in his surroundings before realizing that Felix was, in fact, there. “Oh, hi, Felix! What are you doing here?”

Changbin held up the papers he had gotten from Felix awkwardly. “He brought me my notes.”

“Wow, that’s really nice of you,” Jisung said, turning looking at Felix. “You guys live so far away.”

Felix smiled tightly. “He seemed very upset about losing them this morning. It’s the least I could do.”

There was a moment of silence and Felix wanted flinch at how wrong it felt. He was always comfortable around Changbin, but something felt different. He didn’t know what Jisung had interrupted and he may never know. 

Changbin was the first to break the silence. “Well, thank you for bringing me these. It means a lot.” Felix didn’t know what to make of his words. 

“Yeah,” Jisung added. “I’m surprised you lost those to begin with. You seem extra invested in this song.”

“I guess I am.” Changbin looked at Felix as he said those words and Felix didn’t know what to make of the softness in his gaze. 

“I should get home,” Felix announced, starting for the door. “This was meant to be a quick trip.”

Changbin waved. “See you at home.”

Felix drove home and spent the rest of the day trying to forget about all of the emotions stirring within him. He watched a movie, scrolled through his phone. He holed himself up in his room before Changbin got home and went to sleep before it was even dark outside. He feared how things would be between them. Felix felt like he kept messing everything up and Changbin just did his best to act like nothing happened. He knew that he had seen them kissing too. He wondered if it did things to Changbin the same way it did things Felix.

Felix woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a door opening. He almost went back to sleep and just forgot about it. Almost. Groaning, Felix forced himself to get out of bed and check on the sound. It was immediately obvious upon exiting his room what the sound had been. The door to Changbin’s room was open and when Felix peeked his head in, he could see that Changbin wasn’t inside. Felix had a bad feeling about where this was going. 

Felix made his way to the living room, flicking on the lights as he went to try and alleviate the mild fear he was feeling. Felix’s eyes adjusted to the light just in time to see Changbin opening the front door and stepping outside. Suddenly, Felix seemed to realize the full gravity of what was going on. He ran over to the door and grabbed his friend’s hand, pulling him back inside. He slammed the door closed behind him. 

“Changbin!” He shouted. He spun the other around to face him. He knew this wasn’t Changbin, not really. Felix had never really seen him like this before and it was terrifying knowing that this wasn’t really the Changbin he knew. 

Changbin tore away from him and tried to reach the door once again. Felix realized with a sinking feeling that he was trying to go into the forest. Felix remembered just how terrified he had been when he woke up in the middle of nowhere and he really didn’t want that to happen to Changbin. He pulled on Changbin’s arm desperately. 

“Binnie, no! Please.” Felix pulled his friend into his arms and hugged him tightly. “I never knew how scary this would be, knowing that you aren't you. I just want my Changbin back. Not whatever you are. Please.” Felix could feel Changbin begin to struggle against him again. “I don’t know what you want, but please, not him. Please.”

Felix didn’t even know who he was pleading with, _what_ he was pleading with. He just wanted his friend back. He knew that so much was already changing between them. He had gone to bed just to avoid seeing him after what had happened that day, but he was not about to let whatever this was just walk his friend right off into the forest in the middle of the night. 

Changbin tried to pull away again and it was too much for Felix to withstand. He felt the other slip from his grasp and could feel himself getting frantic. When Changbin saw Felix possessed, he had kissed him. Why was it suddenly so adamant on getting Changbin outside? It wasn’t even paying attention to Felix anymore. 

Felix made another grab for Changbin’s wrist and the other turned to look at him with such a look of hatred that Felix literally took a step back in shock. He had never seen Changbin look at anyone like that, especially not him. In this moment, Felix was scared; more scared than he had ever been. He wasn’t scared for himself. He wasn’t afraid of getting hurt. He wasn’t afraid of rejection or failure or anything harming him. He was terrified of losing Changbin. In this moment, the look on his friend’s face was so foreign that Felix almost felt like he was entirely lost.

Every time Felix thought he had this whole possession thing figured it out, something changed. He thought it was peaceful, but he also thought that it wouldn’t take him far from the house and he already saw how that turned out. He thought that whatever was controlling them simply liked messing with his life, making him kiss his best friend, but clearly whatever was going on right now was more important. 

Changbin spun away and made a break for the door. He managed to grab the handle before Felix pounced on him. He was almost too afraid to. He was terrified of what he would do. This wasn’t Changbin, he didn’t know how he would react. He wrapped his arms around his friend once more, determined not to let him go, no matter how many times he tried. 

Felix didn’t realize he was crying until he tried to get out the word, “Please.” He was shaking as he hugged Changbin tightly. “Right now I am terrified of you walking away and never coming back and this is not how I want to end things. I was trying to hide from you, like a coward. But I don’t want you to go. I never want you to go.” Felix wanted to look into Changbin’s eyes but he feared both his friend escaping and the emptiness he would see behind them. “Please come back to me.” Felix sniffled, burying his face in his friend’s clothes. ‘“I love you.”

It took Felix a moment to notice the change in Changbin’s body language. He was so busy sobbing against hi, that he didn’t immediately notice his friend relax under his embrace. He didn’t realize until the other reached around him and began to hug him back, though tentatively. 

“Lix?” Changbin questioned shakily. Felix pulled back to look at him and was delighted to see his best friend staring back at him, confused, but undoubtedly himself. Felix laughed tearily. “What happened?”

Felix tried to smile in relief, but he still felt it turn into a frown as tears flowed from his eyes. “You weren’t yourself. You were trying to leave. I remembered when I woke up lost in the woods and I was so scared.” Felix was sobbing and he knew his words could hardly be baking sense. 

Changbin pulled him in for another hug. “It’s okay. I’m me.”

Felix smiled shakily, squeezing him right back. “I know.” He sighed and tried to calm himself down, allowing Changbin’s closeness soothe him. “I don’t know what I would have done if I lost you. I barely made it back when I woke up there.”

Changbin laughed, but he sounded scared himself. “Yeah, that would have been really terrifying. Thanks for stopping me.”

Felix found the strength to pull back again, finally at least somewhat calmer. He found himself staring into Changbin’s eyes, reveling in the light behind them. A great relief flooded through his system once again. Felix always knew that he loved Changbin, but, in that moment, he realized just how much he needed him. 

“Changbin,” he began, voice breathy. Changbin looked at him expectantly and Felix couldn’t hold it in anymore. He reached out to touch his face with one hand, leaning in closer. The moment was charged as Felix watched Changbins’s eyes flutter closed. Tentatively, Felix closed the minimal gap and pressed his lips to Changbin’s. 

The kiss as light and quick, but still meaningful, to Felix at least. He pulled back and looked at Changbin, trying to gage his reaction. His heart was beating like crazy and he felt his insides aflutter. He couldn’t believe he had just done that. He had just kissed Changbin. Felix wanted to run and shut himself away after that. He was giddy and embarrassed at the same time and terrified of how Changbin would react. 

To Felix’s surprise, Changbin leaned back in and reconnected their lips. Felix hummed in both surprised and content. His hands slid down to Changbin’s waist, pulling his closer and Changbin’s slid up behind his neck. Felix could feel himself smiling into the kiss, but he couldn’t stop himself. He didn’t know it was possible to be this happy. 

He pulled back, smiling from ear to ear. Changbin offered him a shy smile. “Felix,” he whispered. “Do you have any idea how long I have waited for that?”

Felix’s eyes widened, taken aback. “What?”

“I have been in love with you for so long, Felix.”

Felix gasped. “Hey! That’s my line!” Changbin laughed. “For how long?”

“I don’t know when I realized,” Changbin admitted. “It has to have been years.”

Felix laughed in disbelief, still holding Changbin close. “This can’t be happening.”

Changbin leaned in, pressing their foreheads together for only a moment. “It is. I love you, Lee Felix.”

Felix shook his head. “No. Seo Changbin, I love you. I have loved you almost since we met. I love the way you smile. I love your stupid loud laugh. I love the way you take care of me even when you shouldn’t have to. I love how invested you get in music. I love the way you cuddle up on the couch to watch horror movies with me and comfort me later when they inevitably scare me. I love everything about you and I never want to lose you.”

Changbin’s smile had been growing as Felix talked and he finally had the chance to respond. “Shut up,” he said before leaning in and kissing Felix again. Felix wasn’t complaining.  
Their lips parted and connected again, and again. It was so sweet and there was so much emotion behind every touch. Everything about it was different from when they were being controlled. Everything about this felt right. This was real. And Felix was unimaginably happy. 

They made their way back to Felix’s room, turning all of the lights back off as they went. It was still the middle of the night and Felix wasn’t entirely convinced the danger was over. Changbin agreed to stay in his room once again, but this time Felix didn’t shy away from him. He cuddled as close to him as he could, using his warmth as a comfort to finally drift back to sleep. He was okay. They were both okay. And Changbin loved him. 

Felix had woken up next to Changbin a countless number of times, but this time was different for so many reasons. He woke up to the feeling of his hair being brushed out of his face. He wanted to pretend that he was still sleeping, but he couldn't help the smile from creeping onto his face. 

“Good morning,” Changbin whispered and Felix finally opened his eyes. His heart did a flip when his gaze met Changbin’s. The older was looking at him with such a warm smile, still oh so close. Felix felt an overwhelming happiness overcome him, his heart so full of love for the man lying beside him. “Or afternoon,” he added with a light laugh and Felix fell even further in love. 

“Good morning,” he whispered back, smile only growing. “This can’t be real.”

Changbin leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to Felix’s lips. “Is that proof enough that this is real? I meant what I said. I can hardly believe this is happening myself.”

Felix found himself breathless. For years, he had dreamed about being able to be this intimate with Changbin. He was still having trouble accepting this as reality. He leaned in and stole another kiss, because he could do that now. The feeling was exhilarating and he found himself so quickly and easily caught up in it. “I love you,” he mumbled against Changbin’s lips. 

The older laughed, holding him closer. “I love you too.” Felix felt like he could happily live in this moment forever. It was like nothing else in the world mattered except for the two of them and Felix had longed for this for so, so long. 

He ended up simply snuggling right back up to Changbin, just as they had been before. “I don’t want to get up,” Felix complained. 

He looked over to Changbin to see him smile. “We don’t have to. It’s Sunday. We can stay in bed all day if that’s what you want.”

Felix looked into his eyes and he could see how much the other really meant what he said. “Yeah,” he breathed, pulling himself closer (if that was even possible). “I think I would like that a lot.”

And so they did, for most of the day at least. They simply reveled in each other’s presence, in the fact they they had finally told each other how they feel, how they could actually be together like this now. 

At some point, Felix remembered mumbling something along the lines of, “To think it took a stupid demon tree and literally being possessed to get us together.” Changbin laughed at that. 

It didn’t take more than a couple days for both their neighbors and their most coworkers to notice that their relationship had changed. Felix was actually pretty sure that Chan had caught on almost immediately. It wasn't like they did anything incredibly different, or, at least, Felix didn’t think so. They teased each other and hung on each other just about as much as they usually did, but apparently even Chan could see that the intent was different. However, the most he ever did in terms of acting on it was asking Felix if they were dating. Other than that, he seemed to leave the topic alone and simply observe. 

The rest of their friends, however, didn’t find out until much later. About a month had passed and there had been no incidents. Felix was beginning to think that they might actually be done, as they had seemed to stop entirely. He had been keeping his journal just in case, but really nothing had been happening. They decided to have all of their friends over again once Minho and Jisung got back from their trip overseas. Minho had come second in the competition, but had received a lot more job opportunities already due to the exposure.

They were all gathered in the kitchen trying to bake a cake, but very poorly. It probably had something to do with the fact that there were nine of them trying to do it, but it was fun nonetheless. Minho was already covered in flour and their kitchen counters were barely visible under everything they had gotten on them. If they ever planned on doing this again, Felix made a mental note to buy aprons. 

So that everyone would have something to do, they split up into three groups; two were making cakes to layer and the other was making icing. Honestly, Felix was regretting ever deciding to bake anything in their house with all of these gremlins, but it was entertaining to say the least. 

“Why is there ice on the floor? We don’t even need ice!” Hyunjin cried in frustration as he stepped on an ice cube. 

“I was thirsty,” Jeongin replied matter-of-factly. 

“How did this icing become green?” Seungmin mumbled in despair. There was so much going on at once that Felix could hardly keep track of the chaos. 

“It’s mint,” Minho retorted. “It needed to be colorful.”

“My arm is going to fall off if I have to keep mixing this,” Felix complained, adding to the madness. 

“Don’t be dramatic,” Woojin chastised. “We are literally just making cake.”

“I don’t know if you have noticed,” Chan said with a laugh. “But everything about this is dramatic.”

“Were we supposed to preheat the oven?” Jisung wisely questioned. Everyone collectively groaned.

“You have some batter on your face,” Changbin pointed out to Felix, reaching up to wipe it from his face.

“Oh, thank you,” Felix said with a smile. Changbin stuck the finger that he used to wipe away the batter in his mouth and Felix felt himself blush. 

“It tastes really good,” he said with a smile. 

“Shut up,” Felix mumbled, looking away, embarrassed. They were in front of their friends after all. 

“Embarrassed?” Changbin teased. “I can do better than that.”

Felix didn’t have time to fear what he meant before Changbin’s lips were on his. The kiss was quick and sweet, but it was enough to stop Felix from functioning properly. He heard a screech and shyly looked around to see their friends staring at them, mouths hanging open. 

“Since when?!” Hyunjin yelled, shocked. 

Felix felt himself blush even more, trying to shrink back. He felt Changbin’s arm circle around his waist and he leaned into it for support. “Over a month?”

“No way!” Jisung screeched. “I should have noticed by now.”

“You have been away,” Changbin reasoned. 

“Not the whole time,” Jisung retorted. “How could I not know?” Chan snorted and he turned his attention to him. “Did you know?”

“Well yeah,” he replied. “It is really obvious.”

“When they do things like that, it is!” Seungmin was still looking at them like they had sprouted extra limbs. 

“What did I just see with my two naked eyes?” Jeongin added. 

“I don’t think I like that phrase that just came out of your mouth,” Minho said. 

“I can’t believe it,” Jeongin continued. 

“It’s about time,” Woojin interjected. All heads whipped to him. 

“Don’t you even try to tell me that you knew before we did,” Felix said, squinting at him. 

“Felix, I think we all did,” Chan replied. 

“Really?” Changbin seemed as upset by this information as he did. “All this time.” Felix looked between his friends who all shrugged, or nodded, or gave him some sort of affirmation. Well, except for one. 

“I freaking didn’t! I can’t believe this!” Jisung cried. “Congratulations, I guess.” The way he said it made Felix laugh. 

“Thanks,” Felix whispered, a wide smile spreading across his face. 

“You two are cute together,” Hyunjin said with a smile. “Really.” Felix looked over to see Changbin beaming beside him.

“It’s good to finally see you two together. I was sure the sexual tension was going to kill me one of these days,” Seungmin added. 

“Shut up,” Felix and Changbin said at the same time, both laughing. “Now let’s get these cakes in the oven before Jeongin eats all of the batter.” All eyes turned to the youngest at Felix’s words. 

Jeongin’s head snapped up at the mention of his name and he quickly retracted his hand from the cake pan. “Nothing,” he said when he saw all of their gazes on him and everyone burst into laughter.

The cake actually turned out pretty well in the end and they actually finished it off before people started to leave. Chan and Woojin were the last to leave their house as the sun began to set. 

“Did you two get that demon problem sorted? You have seemed a lot happier lately, but I don’t know whether that’s because the possession has stopped or because of your relationship.” Chan smiled at them as he asked about it and Felix was surprised that he had remembered. To be honest, Felix had almost forgotten about it himself.

“Actually,” Changbin responded. “I think so. It seems to have stopped.”

The smile that Chan gave them was so big and heart warming and Felix almost just hugged him right then and there. “Good. I’ll see you two at work.” And, with that, they were alone in their house. 

“Do you really think it’s over?” Felix asked his boyfriend, searching his eyes. 

“I don’t know,” he said with a shy shrug. “I think so. Remember the message it gave us?”

Felix nodded. “‘Make it a reality.’”

“What if we already did that?”

Felix looked at him in confusion. “I do not follow.”

Changbin smiled and took his hands. “Us. Whatever was controlling us seemed to like making us kiss. Chenle and Jisung too. Now that we are together, the possessions seem to have stopped. The same thing seemed to happen with Chenle and Jisung. Think about it, Lix. What if this is all it wanted?”

Felix couldn’t believe that he had not thought of this sooner. It made so much sense. He could already feel himself getting emotional. “Does that mean that it’s all over?” he asked. “Are we finally free?”

“I think so,” Changbin whispered, pulling him into a hug. “I think so.” Felix pulled back to give him a kiss on the nose. Changbin giggled and Felix smiled, heart soaring. 

Another month or so passed and Felix had almost completely forgotten about the possessions. He had still been keeping a journal just to be safe, but it really seemed like everything was truly over. He really thought they were done with the terrors of not being themselves, of the evil tree that sat behind their house, staring down at them from the hill. Felix didn’t expect his whole world to come crumbling down again so suddenly. 

He remembered going to bed that night. He remembered curling up against Changbin under the covers, holding him tight. Nothing had happened, but Felix still got scared some nights. Some nights, he just needed to be close to Changbin, to know that he was safe. Felix remembered falling asleep next to him and that only made what came next all the more terrifying. 

Felix came to to find himself standing in front of the tree that had been haunting him ever since they had moved into their house. He felt himself literally sob in fear and despair, falling to the ground. No. This couldn’t be happening. It was supposed to be over. 

Sleepwalking. Yeah, that had to be it. He must have slept walked out here. There was no way something had possessed him again. They had stopped it. Felix wanted to go back home, to cuddle back into bed with Changbin and pretend this never happened, but as he stared at the tree in front of him he knew that it held all of the answers he never wanted. He could have pretended that this was just sleepwalking. He could have just gone home and forgotten. But, instead, he walked over to the tree to find out for sure whether or not his worst nightmares were coming true. 

Felix pressed his palm to the rough bark of the gnarled tree, hoping with all of his being that he wouldn’t see a thing. He wasn’t so lucky. The visions washed over him like a tsunami, it was to much to take in all at once, but they were unrelenting. Felix watched himself get up and out of bed at night, time and time again. It was the one time that he couldn't document. Of course whatever was controlling him knew how to fool him. It knew that it could easily get around his journaling by simply taking over his body at night. Felix was terrified by what he was witnessing. 

He had really thought that it was all over. He had begun to sink into somewhat of a normalcy, pretending like all of the possession madness had never happened, or was at least behind them, so finding himself here in the middle of the night and seeing all of the things he had been doing in his sleep absolutely terrified him. At least he could recognize that he was forgetting things before. Now he was being taken over when he had no idea that it was happening. It wasn’t over.

Night after night, memory after memory, Felix watched in horror as he walked out of his house and into the woods. He didn’t know where he was going and he seemed to end up in a different place every time. It was all so eerie and terrifying and Felix just wanted this to end. All of this time he had thought he was safe when, really, he was wandering into the woods almost every night. 

Felix found himself crumbling to the ground in front of the tree when the vision finally faded, sobbing and shivering in fear. The horrors would never end. He would go home and live his life and continue to lose control of himself in the middle of the night. He was never safe. No matter how comfortable he felt, it could still get to him. 

Felix ran back home, bare feet sore from the cold ground. He burst in through the front door and slammed it behind him like it would somehow stop the bad things from getting to him. But all it took was Felix looking up, out their giant glass window, to realize that he could never truly escape. The tree stood glaring down at him from on top of the hill, towering over the others, illuminated by the bright light of the moon on the cloudless night. 

Felix was desperate for comfort. Desperate for his bed. Desperate for Changbin. Home was no longer enough. He ran to his room, throwing open the door, still shaking violently. He looked to the bed, expecting to see Changbin still lying there and was startled when he saw it empty. He very clearly remembered falling asleep next to him here.

Felix redirected himself to Changbin’s room, hoping that maybe he had just been controlled to go there or that maybe he had simply been stuck in visions for a full twenty-four hours. He no longer had any concept of time anyways. Felix felt a terrible feeling settle in his stomach when he found his boyfriend’s room empty as well. 

At this point, he was getting more scared and more desperate by the second. “Changbin?” he called, tentatively making his way into the living room. He was met with an eerie silence. “Binnie?” He heard his voice shaking. Still no response. He began to look around the house more frantically, coming up with nothing in the end. Changbin was gone. 

Felix was sobbing now. He sunk down the floor, no longer knowing what to do. He felt so alone and so scared and he just wanted this to be over. He wished this was all one big, twisted dream. He wanted to wake up in Changbin’s arms, for him to comfort him and tell him everything was okay. But that didn’t happen. 

“What do you want!” Felix cried out to nothing. He turned to glare out his window at the tree. “Please,” he sobbed. “Just give him back.”

Unsurprisingly, he got no response. He allowed himself to cry for a while longer before picking himself up off of the floor and wiping away his tears. He had run out of any rationality and, right now, he just didn’t want to be alone anymore. He slipped on some shoes and a jacket before going back outside, bound for the neighbors’ house. 

He knew that he was going to seem insane for showing up in the dead of night, but he was desperate and he knew they would understand, at least to some degree. He knocked on the door and waited. Silence. He tried again, a little louder this time. Still nothing. Felix felt a familiar feeling of dread sink in. He decided to ring the doorbell, no longer caring if he was immensely disturbing them. He was ringing it repeatedly and there were still no signs of life from inside and he knew something was wrong. 

For a moment, he thought of going in anyways, just to check, but he decided against it. That would be creepy and wrong. Besides, he already got the feeling that no one was home. This just left Felix feeling all the more alone. This was intentional, wasn’t it. None of this was a coincidence. He knew in this moment that it had taken them. All of them.

Felix felt himself getting worked up again. He ran to his back yard and stopped to scream at the sky. “Why!?” He was breathing heavily and he was pretty sure he was hysterical. “I don’t know what you want from me! Please! Just give them back!”

A heavy wind blew through suddenly, picking up out of nowhere, chilling Felix to his bones and making him rub his arms in a feeble attempt to warm up. He looked up to see the demon tree watching him from atop the hill, taunting him. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

"Okay,” he said, much quieter this time. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

With that, Felix started off into the woods. He was terrified more than he could ever express, but he knew that he needed his friends back and he was willing to do anything to see them again. He still didn’t know what whatever was doing this wanted, but he was willing to play it’s game, if only to see his friends again. 

Felix was terrified of the woods at night, even the idea of it chilled him to his bones. He whipped his head every which way at every little sound. Even with how bright to moon was, it was still terribly dark in the forest. He could hardly see a thing and he hadn’t been in the right mindset to think to bring a flashlight of any sort with him. He shivered in the cold night, pulling his jacked tighter around him.

He no longer knew where he was. At some point, the trees around him stopped being familiar and he lost all sense of direction. He was cold, tired, alone, afraid. But he was determined to find his friends. He was determined to end this. 

Felix had already felt like he had been walking for forever and he was sure the sun should have risen by now, but it still remained pitch black outside. Suddenly, a whisper of light caught his eye. As soon as he saw it, it just as quickly vanished. He was beginning to think we was going insane from lack of sleep when he saw another flicker of light, a little further off this time. He was confused, but willing to do just about anything at this point, so he wandered towards where he had seen the light. Every time he would get closer, another small light would appear, as if hovering in the air, just before disappearing. It was almost as if they were leading him somewhere. He followed. 

Felix found himself stumbling into a clearing in the woods. The moon shone directly above him, lighting up the entire area before him. He walked into the center, unsure of where to go from here. He had made it this far, but now he didn’t know what to do. Why was he here? Where were his friends?

Felix heard a cracking sound from behind him and he yelped, whipping around to see someone walking towards him from out of the trees. He almost had a heart attack before he realized it was Chenle. He was ready to run to him when he heard another sound from the right. He turned quickly to see Jisung now as well. Felix didn’t even have to hear another sound to know that he should turn to look behind him now. 

Sure enough, he turned to see Changbin now walking towards him as well. He was almost ready to just fling himself into his boyfriend’s arms, but he was pretty sure he had passed the point of relief and was slowly slipping into fear. It was obvious that none of them were themselves and they were all closing in on him quickly and Felix didn’t know why. All he knew was that he was scared. He was caught between wanting to cling to them and never let go and running for his life. 

He settled for sort of a middle ground and crouched down to the ground covering his head. He was definitely delirious at this point and he was trying to convince himself that if he couldn’t see them, they couldn’t get him. 

It felt like a lot of time was passing and still nothing had happened, so Felix cautioned a glance up to see that all three boys had simply stopped a short distance from him. Now that they were closer, Felix could see that they were all in their pajamas, feet bare and Felix felt an intense feeling of empathy. He knew what it was like to be in that situation and it was painful. But he was determined to make it home with them safely, even if he didn’t know how he was going to do it. 

Felix slowly stood up, shaking, though he didn’t know if it was because he was scared or cold. Changbin was right in front of him and he reached out to touch him, desperate for him to be real, but also to be himself. Right before his hand made contact with Changbin’s face all three boys stepped backwards and pointed. Felix froze in fear, but quickly realized that they weren’t going to do anything more. 

He slowly looked to where they were pointing. At first, it seemed as if they were pointing at nothing, but Felix managed to make out what seemed to be a stone lying on the ground in. He was still confused. In that moment, he could have sworn the light from the moon grew brighter and he noticed the circle of stones lining the edge of the clearing for the first time. He looked back to where his friends were pointing to see that they were pointing to a single stone that was out of place. 

“No,” Felix murmured. “That cannot be all that we needed to do this whole time.” He looked up to the sky, slowly getting louder in frustration. “You did not put us through all of that just because there was a stupid stone out of place!”

Felix was distraught to say the least. Was this really all that he had to do this whole time? They had been dealing with this for so long; whatever this was messing with them. Felix wanted to scream, but he couldn’t muster the energy. He was tired; both literally exhausted and just tired of this whole thing. 

Felix walked over to the stone, picking it up and placing it back in line with the rest of the circle. He felt a strong breeze blow through as he stood back up. “Oh course,” he murmured. “Of freaking course.”

He ran back to his friends, ready to see them as themselves again, sure that he had finally ended it this time. Just as he reached them he saw Changbin’s mouth open to mouth the words “thank you.” Even in the dark Felix could distinguish that much. He didn’t have time to think about it too much because he saw all of his friend’s postures shift slightly from their stiff positions and he knew that they were themselves again. 

This time, he really did throw himself into Changbin’s arms. The older stumbled backwards, but caught him nonetheless. His skin was freezing and Felix pressed himself closer, trying to warm him up even if he was cold himself. 

“Felix?” Changbin asked shakily. “What is going on?”

Felix reluctantly pulled back and saw Chenle and Jisung looking at him with terrified expressions on their faces, mirroring Changbin’s. Felix looked between them all and everything really seemed to set in for the first time. They were back. They were themselves and they were done with all of this. He felt himself tearing up, overwhelmed with emotion. 

“It’s over,” he said with a smile. “It’s all finally over.”

“Felix, what do you mean?” Chenle asked, rubbing up and down his arms. Jisung walked over to him and took his hand in his own. 

Felix shook his head, unable to think of any way to quickly explain what had just happened. He wasn’t sure at least fifty percent of it was real. He was so tired and out of it that he just wanted to collapse then and there. 

“I will explain later. We need to find a way back home.” The others all seemed to actually look around for the first time. 

“How?” Jisung questions. “Where are we?”

Felix frowned. “I don’t know.” He felt dread settle in his stomach. However, a familiar light caught his attention in the distance. “Actually, I think I might have a good idea.”

The four followed the same lights that Felix had used to get into the clearing through the woods as the sun finally began to rise. Felix gave his jacket to Changbin and he wished that he could somehow carry all of them so that they wouldn’t have to walk through the forest barefoot. 

Somehow, they managed to make it back to the forest just behind Felix and Changbin’s house. When they emerged, the sun was finally up enough for it to be considered daytime and Felix had managed to explain as much of the story as he could to the others. He was sure it was more than a little shaky, but he was freezing, emotionally drained, and sleep deprived. Felix and Changbin saw to it that Chenle and Jisung made it into their house safely before Felix picked up Changbin, deciding it would be okay to carry him just up to their house. They both only made it to Felix’s room before crashing hard, not even bothering to clean up. 

Felix woke up the next day, confused as to why he was still fully clothed, only to have all of the events come rushing back to him all at once. He looked over in fear and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Changbin fast asleep beside him. He was still there. They were both still home. 

Changbin stirred beside him, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “G’moring,” he mumbled.

Felix laughed, delighted for the simplest of reasons. He was just happy that Changbin was beside him. He was happy he got to wake up next to him at all, but especially now, because he was actually here and not in the middle of the forest. He was himself. They both were. 

“I love you,” Felix said because he couldn’t hold it in. 

Changbin smiled sleepily. “I love you too, Lix.” Felix threw his arms around his boyfriend and gave him a kiss. It was soft and sweet and Felix felt so full of love. He was so grateful that he had Changbin in his life. He was so happy to not be alone. 

Clearly awake now, Changbin pulled back slightly to ask, “Do you really think it’s over now?”

Felix nodded. “I don’t know what it was, but I really think it’s over now. Everything about what happened felt very . . . final.”

Changbin sighed and smiled, leaning down to give Felix a peck on the nose. “Good.”

“I was really angry, tired, and scared at the time,” Felix began, causing Changbin to laugh. He gave him a look and he quieted, but the smile remained on his face. “But now that I think about it more, I don’t think that whatever is behind this knew where that circle was. Not at first, at least. I think it was trying to find it. But that doesn’t make the whole “Make it a reality” thing make sense. I am beginning to think that it really only did that to get us and Chenle and Jisung together. Does that sound weird?”

“Yes,” Changbin replied with zero hesitation and Felix swatted at his arm. He laughed and continued. “Yes, but I believe it. Enough crazy things have happened that that seems entirely plausible. I think it might have been having a little too much fun with us.” Felix laughed, embarrassed of actions that weren’t even his own. 

“It worked though,” Felix reasoned. 

“Yes,” Changbin said, leaning in to steal another kiss. “It did.”

A couple months passed and Felix and Changbin stood in front of the tree once again. There hadn’t been a single incident since Felix ended things, but Felix also knew better than to simply trust his memory. So here they stood, in front of the tree that started it all. 

“I’m scared,” Felix admitted, shying away from the tree. 

Changbin took his hand in his own. “It will be okay. It’s over, remember? I’m here and you ended it.”

Felix nodded, taking his reassurance as the fuel to finally touch the tree. He took a deep breath before reaching out to place his hand on the trunk. He drew in a sharp breath and . . . nothing happened. There were no memories. The tree was just a tree.

Felix retracted his hand, laughing in pure joy. He immediately turned to throw his arms around Changbin. His boyfriend laughed and squeezed him right back. “We really are free.”

Felix and Changbin sat in their living room, surrounded by all of their friends. It had been several months since the possessions had stopped. They had told their friends about what had happened and Felix still wasn’t entirely sure that they believed them. 

“I can’t believe that it was a bunch of nature spirits that got you together in the end,” Seungmin complained. 

“Nature spirits, that’s a new one,” Changbin replied. “I think I like the idea of that a lot more than demons.”

“This does explain a lot of what happened with you two at work a while back,” Jisung added. “I was beginning to get really concerned for your health.”

“But it’s over now,” Felix said with a smile. “It has been for a while.”

“Have you talked to the people that used to live here again since you stopped it?” Chan asked, curious. 

Felix nodded. “We still see them at Jisung and Chenle’s house sometimes. They about gave me a heart attack when they said they didn’t solve the problem the same way that we did, but it didn’t really go away when they thought it did.”

“How sure are you it’s gone now?” Hyunjin questioned. 

“Very.” Felix replied. 

“In a horror movie, this is where the camera would pan over to the tree,” Minho added mischievously. 

Felix gasped and he couldn’t help himself from looking out the window to see the tree staring down at them from the hill. “Shut up, I hate you,” Felix complained, cuddling close to Changbin. 

Minho put his hands up in defense. “Sorry, sorry. I’m sure everything is just fine now. It’s been a really long time, right?”

“Very,” Changbin replied, stealing Felix’s response.

“Then I am sure you have your happy ending to the story,” Woojin said with a smile. 

“Thank you.” Felix smiled, giving a pointed look to Minho who only laughed. 

Changbin laughed as well, pulling Felix closer. “Yeah,” he breathed and Felix could feel the emotion in his voice. “I would definitely call this a happy ending.”

**Author's Note:**

> It took me a while to upload this because I was waiting for someone to edit it for me. I eventually gave up on that because I wanted to post it so I am sorry for any spelling errors you may have encountered (^_^;)  
> I hope you enjoyed! I will try to fix any errors as I notice them.  
> Also this work is based off of a dream I had so that is where the subject matter comes from haha.  
> Thank you for reading!


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